Stanford-in-the-Vale woman celebrates 100th birthday

With a life-time passion for food and music it’s not surprising that a 100 year-old Stanford-in-the-Vale woman wanted a traditional birthday party complete with cake and singing to celebrate reaching her centenary.

When Kay Noble, who lives at The Grange Care Centre on Church Green, was asked how she felt about becoming 100 she responded: “It’s like everything else, just another day. I didn’t think I’d get here.” However despite that laid back remark when asked how she wanted the day to go she insisted on having a party.

In honour of her Scottish origins, the party, which was held at The Grange on Friday 9 January, started with Kay being piped in by a piper before being presented with a bouquet of flowers from everyone at The Grange. Then as residents, family and staff sang Happy Birthday, Kay cut the cake – a 10 inch square iced cake with 100 piped on the top in red flowers. On the day, Kay was joined by her two nieces, Anne and Fiona, and one of her great nieces Claire.

The youngest of three children, Kay grew up in Inverness, Scotland, before the family moved to London after her father died in the 1930s. Kay was very musical, winning awards for her piano playing, and excelled at dancing. But it was her talent for cooking that became her career, first working for the Ministry of Food during the war, when she famously met the Queen Mother, and then in the catering department of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where Kay remembers frozen food coming in for the first time in the form of a frozen lump of tomato soup!

The Grange is a residential nursing home offering 24-hour care to elderly residents and younger people in need of round the clock support, whether as respite, post-operative or long-term care. It is part of the Forest Healthcare family of homes, which includes 12 individual homes throughout the South East of England. For more information on The Grange, please visit www.foresthc.com or call 08444 725 182. Those interested in a place at The Grange are welcome to visit at any time, with no appointment necessary.

ENDS

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Sam Orange or Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    sam@pyperyork.co.uk or jay@pyperyork.co.uk