A great grandmother who was born in the year the legendary David Lloyd George became the Prime Minister has celebrated her 100th birthday in style.
Mrs Lily Vaughan was thrilled to receive a birthday card from Her Majesty the Queen ahead of her birthday party at the Cae Bryn care home which is part of the Pendine Park care organisation in Wrexham.
She said: “I love it and I have a card from the Queen. I love it here. I like looking after the gardens and they let me help.”
Lily moved into Cae Bryn in April this year having lived independently at her home in Hanmer until November of last year when she broke her hip in a fall.
Her two sons, Victor, 72, and Graham, 69, and their families joined her to celebrate her special birthday party.
Victor, a retired BT engineer, said: “She is still a very independent lady and absolutely loves it here at Cae Bryn and she is even back walking with the help of a frame to give her support.
“She is suffering from dementia now which is affecting her short term memory but she can still remember things from the past in vivid detail.”
He added: “Mum was born at Sandford in Shropshire and attended Lower Heath School at Prees, near Whitchurch. She married my dad, Frank, who passed away in 1972 aged just 56.
“They had two sons, Graham and me. Mum has four grandchildren, Kay and Andrew are my and my wife, Wendy’s two children and Graham and Janet also have two, a daughter Mandy and son Nicky.
“She also has six great-grandchildren, Kay has three children, Pia, 12, Luca, eight, and Cian, five, who all live in Surrey, while Andrew has a daughter, Alela, four. Nicky has two children Kai, seven, and Molly, two.”
Graham, a former cheese maker, said: “Mum was always a housewife and mum really although she did work as a nanny for a Doctor McColl in Hanmer for a while and for a dentist in Chester too. She just loved gardening though and that has always been her main interest.
“She loves it at Cae Bryn and is happy. She has some level of independence and can get out into the gardens and quite happily gives advice to the gardening team about what they should and shouldn’t do!
“We really can’t fault Cae Bryn, they have been so good with her and all the care team are fantastic, we really can’t fault it. Everyone has a smile on their face and it’s such a happy place. She still has some of her independence and that is so important.”
Lilly’s granddaughter, Mandy, 45, of Whitchurch, said; “Nan has been talking about reaching 100 for around four years. Bless her she has done so well especially living on her own until she was 99 and a bit.
“She was originally in a nursing home in Whitchurch after her fall but since she moved into Cae Bryn she is just back to her old self.”
The mayor of Wrexham, Cllr John Pritchard, and the mayoress, his wife Ann, dropped in to present Lily with flowers and a birthday card on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council.
Cllr Pritchard said: “It’s always a pleasure to visit anyone celebrating their 100th birthday. It’s a wonderful milestone and achievement.
“Lily is clearly a happy and lady and is obviously delighted to be able to celebrate her birthday with her lovely family. My wife and I wanted to congratulate her and present her with a birthday card from the council and some flowers from ourselves.”
What happened in 1916
In 1916, the year Lily was born, the Battle of the Somme took place between July and November which would claim the lives of more than a million soldiers.
The Royal Army Medical Corps carried out the first successful blood transfusion.
Welshman David Lloyd George became Prime Minister.
British Summertime (daylight saving) was first introduced.
Actress Betty Grable (died 1973), actor Gregory Peck (died 2003) and author Roald Dahl (died 1990) were all born.
