A celebration for a special lady...

On Sunday DH and I went to a 90th birthday celebration at the Eatons Hill Tavern.

The view from the windows in the area set up for the 90th

Bea/ Mrs C/ Granny is very much loved by friends and family. The birthday girl and DH go back a long way. DH and one of her sons used to be in a band together in the 1960s.  A number of the guests, like DH had also attended the same youth group in the 1960s. Before I came on the scene, DH and Bea's daughter used to go out together...so our lives are certainly intertwined. But there's more...

Mrs C enquires about what DH has been up to lately...

Ten years ago when we went to Bea's 80th party I saw a familiar face amongst the guests. It was someone whom I had met through my work when he came to complete an ascertainment for one of my students. He and his wife were at the 80th  because his wife's sister was one of Bea's daughters in law! Eventually we would work together at my last school and a firm friendship with both husband and wife would ensue.

DH and my former workmate David...

We got there a little early, so these 2 enjoyed a catch up chat and some 'clowning about' lol

Here's one of the young guests giving Bea a big smile ( my friends, David and Majella's latest grandson)

And here is Bea having a cuddle with our friends Liz and Glenn's latest grandson...

Here's the same baby being cuddled by his grandmother, Liz and admired by our friend Barbara. (these 2 ladies went to school with Bea's daughter)

My friend Majella was taking photos for the family...

There were 2 cakes...this was the first one to be cut...

I asked DH to take a photo of me with the 'official photographer' and she was very grateful later in the day when she discovered that she had no photos of herself...but I had also taken others of her so all was good :-)

Majella and I

Now I put in the title of this post that Mrs C was a special lady...she has had the most awful things happen to her and she has shown herself to be an amazingly resilient lady. Her husband, the manager of a large city hotel was shot on his way home from work in 1971. The family had the heartache of losing a husband and father as well as all the publicity and the trial of the man who was convicted.
Her son, who was a good friend of DH died young, as did another of her sons. Her surviving son died suddenly and therefore unexpectedly, last year. Her only daughter has been plagued by ill health for many years and awaits a liver transplant. So it was good to see Bea having a good time at her party...

 And it looks like she went home in a special car...' George Wolseley', David's car...love this photo!