ACTIVELY SENIOR
Marje Jacobson
became an author at 80 By Mala Blomquist
M
arje Jacobson didn’t intend to write a book when she sat down at the computer to share a story of the playful antics of a birthday balloon; she mainly wanted to keep herself occupied and thinking about good things, rather than bad things, during the pandemic. “I thought, well, this will be something that I can write a story about and give to my grandchildren and since they’re already grown and maybe they’ll save it for my great-grandchildren – whom they are taking their time producing!” jokes Marje. Her family had a big celebration in California planned for her 80th birthday, and with COVID-19 they had to cancel the festivities. So two of Marje’s friends came over, hung balloons outside and left candy and flowers on her doorstep. When she went out the next day, the balloons were all tangled up. When Marje went to untangle them, one flew away and she caught the other one and brought it inside. “Then the balloon started to take on a life of its own,” says Marje. “All of the things that it did (in the book) were true up until the very end, which I changed a little.” In her story, a birthday balloon given by friends helps a grandmother cope with COVID-19 and being isolated. The message is simple: if you have friends and family and a little faith in the unknown, you’ll never be truly alone. After she finished the story, she thought. “Other people have published; what would happen if I tried to publish my story?” She knew she would need an illustrator, so Marje approached her eldest grandson, who is an architect, and “does all kinds of amazing things” to see if he would like to illustrate the book, but he was too busy. So she then asked her friend’s grandson, Youki Imori, who had just graduated with an art degree, and he agreed.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
