Choir serenades popular Olive on her 100th birthday at Horncastle care home
A popular resident of a care home in Horncastle was serenaded by a local choir as she celebrated her 100th birthday at a special party.
Olive Rodgers, who has been at the Tanglewood Care Home on Louth Road since 2015, reached the milestone last Friday (September 18).
In the morning, one of her daughters, Marion, went into the home to conduct a birthday bingo session for all the residents.
And then during the afternoon, singers from Minting Community Choir, of which her other daughter, Julie, is a member, performed a mini-concert.
Students from Banovallum School in Horncastle also popped in to take flowers for Olive and a card they had made for her as a surprise “to help her to feel special”. And refreshments, including a buffet and cake, topped off the celebrations.
Alice O’Hare, manager of the home, said: “Olive is always so active and believes that this is the secret to her long and happy life.
"Any activity going and Olive is always there, be it bingo, art and craft or exercise classes, as long as she has some chocolate to nibble on!
"Being involved and interested in what is going on is the secret to her good age.
"She particularly loves to play dominoes with all her family – and she is hard to beat!
"As well as the party, Olive celebrated on Sunday, alongside her friend of 53 years, with a roast dinner and her favourite pudding (crumble), prepared by the kitchen team at Tanglewood.”
Olive was born in the Lincolnshire village of Brant Broughton in 1926 and had two older brothers, Fred and Will.
After leaving school, she worked as a domestic help and it was while walking to and from work that she came across her future husband, Robert, who was a young farm worker.
Alice takes up the story: “Robert used to get the farm horses to lay down and he would hide behind them, laying in wait for young Olive to walk by!
"Then he threw potatoes to attract her attention! It obviously worked because they were married for 69 years.
"They moved around quite a bit, as was the nature of farm workers, but settled in Caythorpe Heath and lived there for many years until retiring to Ancaster.
“Olive used to teach at Sunday School and had an affinity with young children. She was always in demand for help and advice from new mothers, and is herself mum to three children, gran to six grandchildren, great granny to six great grandchildren and also a beloved aunty.”
Olive used to enjoy knitting and making various items of clothing and toys for her family and friends. With Robert, she attended whist drives, played bowls and took part in Scrabble tournaments.
She also used to cook and did lots of baking, using home-grown produce. She enjoyed foraging too, with blackberries picked off the hedgerows particularly popular at this time of year.
Nowadays, Olive likes listening to music and is a great fan of the musical duo Foster and Allen.
"She was over the moon to see them live in concert,” says Alice. “She also likes watching snooker on TV, as well as the BBC show, ‘Countryfile’, and nature programmes.”
Olive’s birthday was the second 100th celebrated at Tanglewood in recent months. Freda Mackinder, who has been a resident since 2017, also reached her century in July