Scott City woman hosts 'baby shower' for her 65th birthday

Brenda Moyers had a birthday party Jan. 14, but she didn't receive any gifts. Instead, she asked her friends to bring baby gifts to donate to Birthright in Cape Girardeau.

"The girls wanted to do something for my birthday and I said, 'I don't mind doing something, but there will be absolutely no gifts,'" says Moyers, who turned 65 on Jan. 10. "We're to the point in our lives where we really don't need anything else. We're very blessed. To exchange gifts for the unborn is just a wonderful thing."

Moyers called the party a "celebration of life" for new babies, and also because she's marking five years cancer-free. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2006 and says it was a difficult journey. The same month Moyers found out she had cancer, the family learned her mother's cancer had returned after 16 years. Moyers was hospitalized with blood clots in both lungs, and began going through chemotherapy in December. Then, after her friends took her out for dinner on her birthday, Moyers tripped on a curb, fell down and broke her left shoulder and right wrist.

"I have a great base of friends who got me through it. They are true friends," says Moyers. After all that -- and a breast cancer diagnosis for a close friend -- Moyers knows life is worth celebrating. So Jan. 14, she invited nine friends to her Scott City home for lunch and a "baby shower." They decorated for the theme, right down to the teddy bear napkin rings and tiny diapers filled with candy.

"We're celebrating new life, so it will be all baby things," says Moyers. "It's such a cause and you're able to see the end result, that you're actually helping someone else."

Brenda Moyers, of Scott City, celebrated her 65th birthday by holding a baby shower-themed party on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. Baby gifts brought by her guests were donated to Birthright. (Kristin Eberts)

Moyers hopes her party will inspire others to do the same for birthdays and other celebrations. And it doesn't have to be baby gifts, she says -- it can be donated canned goods, blood or whatever cause you want to support.

"So many of us now are getting to a certain age where we don't need anything else, but people feel like they have to bring a gift," she explains. "Why not bring something someone else can use? Pay it forward. You've been given a good life, now give someone else a chance. I hope other people take this idea, whether for a 70th birthday or a 50th anniversary. If you don't need anything, there are other people who do."