Family plans reunion and memorial party during solar eclipse

DETROIT (WXYZ) - A total solar eclipse is happening on Monday and many people are leaving where they live to find their spot in the path of totality.

One Michigan couple is doing just that and planning more than a party for the historic event.

Jim Owen says he has 170 solar eclipse glasses for his party.

He and his wife Nicki Owen dreamed of a watch party after viewing the last solar eclipse in 2017.

“It’s just it gets so dark, and everything just stops. And then like when we were in Kentucky and the light and you know it was black. Everybody’s applauding,” Nicki Owen said.

Jim Owen says it has been “awesome” planning the party.

“On the way home I said, ‘You know, we gotta see when the next one is you know?’ And got home and checked and it was you know, going through Elmore, Ohio, where I was born and raised,” Jim Owen said.

Last fall, he rented a barn for April 8 in his birthplace of Elmore, Ohio.

He invited family and all his old friends from Elmore, Ohio.

Jim Owen realized when his mother died at 98, they never did anything in her honor. His mother was a nurse at the town’s doctor’s office and he says almost everyone around town knew her.

Jim Owen has dubbed his reunion party the ‘Sara Grace Solar Memorial.’

“We’re not going to have one minute of silence. We’re going to have three minutes of darkness,” he said.

He wants all his attendees to know that this will not be a solemn occasion.

“This is the costume and here is the velvet bow tie that goes with it,” he said.

Jim Owen even got arts and crafts for the kids to make viewing boxes. He has spent every day for the last four months organizing this party.

Jim Owens expects to have about 80 people at the reunion and memorial solar eclipse party on Monday.

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