A birthday gift perfect for the times

Betty Schowalter of Port Washington got the surprise of her life Sunday when she and her family celebrated her 90th birthday.

Along with gifts from her family, Schowalter received a basket of 117 cards from family members, friends and people she didn’t know.

“I had such a wonderful day and certainly different than I could ever have imagined, especially during these tough times we are all going through,” Schowalter wrote in a Facebook post afterward.

“I thought maybe I would get a few cards like I usually do, but never would have guessed on this special birthday that my children would present to me a big basket of cards.”

 The cards were solicited by her children, who wanted to hold a party to celebrate the milestone birthday but realized that isn’t possible in a pandemic, daughter Cathy Thompson said.

 “There are so many people in Port who know her,” Thompson said, noting her mother has been active in the community since moving there in 1952.

Schowalter actually turned 90 on Friday, Jan. 8, her daughter said, although the family decided to celebrate on Sunday.

She was born Betty Tuchscherer on Jan. 8, 1931, in West Bend, the daughter of Alexander and Helen Tuchscherer.

She married Allan Schowalter on Feb. 19, 1952, and the couple had four children — Michael, Susan Schmidt, Cathy Thompson and Gary. Thompson lives in Washington County while the others live in Ozaukee County.

Mr. Schowalter died seven years ago.

Mrs. Schowalter — the first member of her family to live beyond 80, Thompson said — lives on Grand Avenue with her daughter Susan.

But like many people, her mother has found the pandemic isolating, Thompson said.

So Thompson and her brother put out a call for cards on Facebook.

“I was really praying for 100,” she said.

Her mother lives with her sister Susan Schmidt, who would intercept the birthday cards as they arrived at their home.

And on Sunday, when three of Schowalter’s four children gathered to celebrate the milestone, they surprised her with the cards.

“It took us from 2 in the afternoon until 6 at night to go through them all,” Thompson said.

Her mother read each card and note, regaling the family with stories about the people who sent them, she said.

One came from a Girl Scout in a troop led by her mother who went on to become a leader herself, Thompson said.

Others came from friends of Schowalter’s grandchildren, she said.

And members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary stopped by the house to drop off a birthday cake.

“There were lots of laughs and smiles,” Schowalter wrote in her Facebook post. “All of you made my day perfectly happy and one I will not forget.”