Yaxley House resident Winnie meets great grandson Rubin for first time in surprise birthday party

Winnie Keeble could not celebrate her 90th birthday with her family because of the Coronavirus lockdown.
 
However, staff at Yaxley House care home in Yaxley, near Eye, vowed to make her 91st birthday extra special by organising a surprise party for four generations of her family.

Mrs. Keeble was overjoyed when her family started to arrive on Saturday and the highlight of her afternoon was seeing her six-month-old great grandson Rubin Lummis for the first time.
 
Sarah Rogers, manager of the Kingsley Healthcare home, said: “We wanted to make up for the fact she missed out on a big celebration for her 90th birthday so we organised a really special 91st birthday party with the help of her two daughters Sally Lummis and Pat Thurlow.
 
“To accommodate her large family and to meet Covid safety we had to organise the party in two shifts from noon to 1pm and 1pm to 2pm.
 
“Our cook Martin Stokes is a cake maker extraordinaire and he made an amazing birthday cake for Winnie.”
 
Mrs. Lummis said: “I would like to thank Sarah the manager, activities lady Angie and the rest of the staff for putting on such an amazing party.
 
“Winnie was thrilled and she was totally besotted with Rubin when she met him for the first time.”
 
She said her mother, a former housekeeper who lived all her life in villages around Eye, had missed seeing the youngest members of her family so much during the lockdown.
 
“She thought they would still be really tiny and could not believe how much they had grown,” she said.

Find out more about Yaxley House care home

Author: Stephen Pullinger