How a whole school helped to celebrate one big birthday!
Gertrude, affectionately known as Kay, lives at Gordon Colling House, an Independent Living Plus scheme in Bedford. We recently helped Kay celebrate an incredible milestone - her 104th birthday.
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What is the secret to a long life? Go dancing with your best friends!
Children from Shortstown Primary School visit Gordon Colling House at various times throughout the year, singing carols at Christmas or during their new monthly visit where they sit and chat with the residents.
They were asked if they’d like to send some cards for Kay, and they went over and above expectations! 107 cards were received, one from every single child at the school.
As a part of the celebrations, the Gordon Colling House team also surprised Kay with a visit from two therapy ponies, Pickles and Romeo! Theresa Williams, Extra Care Scheme Manager, said “Occasionally horse riders will pass by the scheme and Kay always wants to meet them, so we thought therapy ponies would be a brilliant idea.”
Kay and the residents were thrilled when the ponies were brought in, getting to pet them and feed them the odd polo! One of the ponies even took the lift to visit a customer who was unable to come down to join in the celebrations.
Born in Roxton in 1921, Kay has spent most of her life living and working in Bedford Borough. But what is her secret to a long life? Going dancing with her two best friends! The three friends all live at Gordon Colling House, and they’ve ‘known each other for years’.
The celebrations didn’t end there – a beautiful birthday cake made by the kitchen team was brought out and everyone sang Happy Birthday. This was then followed by a presentation of flowers and short speech from bpha’s CEO, Richard Hill who popped in to wish Kay well.
Kay didn’t expect any celebration but was very excited about it, and loved being surrounded by all the cards and flowers!
“Occasionally horse riders will pass by the scheme and Kay always wants to meet them, so we thought therapy ponies would be a brilliant idea.”
Theresa Williams, Extra Care Scheme Manager