Elsie is one of those quiet unassuming people who you wouldn't notice or look at twice. Elsie doesn't make an entrance but arrives in a room quietly and gracefully, she doesn't have a hearty raucous laugh (unlike me) but a gentle quiet chuckle, you wouldn't hear her speak, sing, laugh above anyone else but Elsie quietly sits in the corner or the back row of a room watching and listening.
Elsie is a diabetic injecting herself with insulin four times a day so she won't stay for tea and cake but will slip away as quietly as she arrived - and, yet, everyone knows Elsie for her kindness, her cards, feeding the birds in her garden, her poetry and for those quiet words 'in season' but mostly for her Christian faith.
Today is Elsie's 80th birthday and I certainly wasn't going to let it pass by as quietly as she would have liked. In fact I announced it last week at the service in Thames View Lodge, announced it in Church last Sunday
'I've told my nieces - no birthday parties' she informed me
'I'm not your niece' I replied back 'and you will do as your told' I bossily told her (I'm good at being bossy!!)
She smiled and nodded her head at me in despair - knowing she was on to a losing battle.
This evening we celebrated Elsie’s birthday at Thames View Lodge, we sang to her and then I asked her to come forward and blow out the candles on her cake expecting her to slink back quietly to her chair BUT oh no she said to me ‘Can I say something?’
‘My dear friends I’ve had such a wonderful day, thank you for all my cards and presents. I have never in all my life received so much attention and I thank you all’
Well the tears came to my eyes… Happy Birthday Elsie
