Appreciations on Joe’s 50th Birthday

As a way to commemorate this milestone birthday of 50 years my love, I asked your family and a few of your close friends to write messages of appreciation for you.  They wrote some pretty great, thoughtful messages which are included here:

From your nephew Miles Gastil:

Happy Birthday Uncle Joe!

I hope you have an amazing birthday. You deserve it! I am so happy you now have a family to call your own. I know you will be as good as a father as you are an uncle. You have been a wonderful influence in my life and I look forward to becoming closer with your growing immediate family. You’re an amazing artist who constantly inspires me to draw. I look at your sketches and paintings and see them as a goal for me to someday achieve that kind of beauty in my drawings. I also enjoy playing chess with you and look forward to more games, and helping you teaching your kid how to play someday. Happy Birthday Uncle Joe.

Love you guys! Miles

From your nephew Garrett Gastil:

Happy 50th Birthday Uncle Joe!

You have always been one of the most fun people to be around. When I was a kid, I remember that I would always be excited to see you because you would pick me up and throw me around your body.

Mom’s Art 2: Collages and a Cactus Drawing

Inside cover of Mom and Paige’s collage book. Text reads: this book was made by Paige Gastil and Grandma Marge Linton – finished in 2002

Thinking of my mom lately… wishing she was still around. Mom was pretty creative, but I think poured a lot of that energy into raising four kids.

I posted a few of my mom’s Stockholm drawings earlier here, today it’s some collages that she did with my niece Paige.

Paige Gastil’s Gramma Reflections

From left to right: Marge Linton and her grandchildren Daniel Linton and Paige Gastil

Here’s my niece Paige Gastil’s moving remembrance of her grandmother – my mother – Margaret Gerhardt Linton.

Paige is the youngest of my sister kids. She currently attends Laguna Hills High School.

My Gramma has always been a huge part of my life.

I remember as kids we would go over to her house every Friday night and watch movies and she’d make Mac and cheese and Fettuccine Alfredo,caesar salad and fish sticks. Gramma always loved us unconditionally. She adored all of her grandkids. She raved about each and every one of them and I know that she made a big impact on all of our lives.

I knew that I could always call her and she’d be delighted to talk to me. In my birthday card this May she wrote “if you ever need any kind of help, call me and tell me and I’ll be there for you.” I know she truly meant this and I’ll miss just being able to pick up the phone and hear her sweet voice.