At Redcot, our residential care home in Haslemere, Surrey, resident Katherine ‘Kay’ Allen, has had a marvellous day celebrating her 88th Birthday with her family, the care home team and her care home friends.
Kay, who moved to Redcot in January this year to be close to her Daughter, was born in Wandsworth, South London; a place with a rich history dating back to the Saxon period. “I enjoyed growing up in Wandsworth,” said Kay. “It’s a great place that got its name from the River Wandle. I used to love going to Wandsworth Common, it’s vast at 175 acres, with my friends. We’d play Tennis, Skipping and Hopscotch.”
Whilst Kay enjoyed her childhood in Wandsworth, she didn’t like school at all. “I hated it,” continued Kay. “I originally attended a convent school, which was OK but my Dad decided that I should go into an ordinary school, which I didn’t like at all, but I did enjoy the PT classes. I was rather good at Netball and Hockey.”
After leaving school, Kay’s career path took her into the world of IT. “I worked for Shell Oil and loved my job,” Kay said. “I enjoyed working with computers and even if I say so myself, I was rather good at IT. We had a good work life balance and were a friendly group, we were very sociable, and I made some great friends at Shell, including my best friend, Margaret.
“During my years with Shell, I was fortunate enough to do quite a bit of international travel, including visiting Algeria to start up a new IT unit for the company, which was pretty groundbreaking at the time.
“I was offered the opportunity to go to Libya, but I’d just got engaged to my soon to be Husband, Brian, so I turned it down. It must have been Kismet or something in the stars, as my best friend, Margaret, accepted the Libyan post in my place. Destiny was certainly working its magic as she met her Husband whilst working there and the rest is history,” added Kay.
In 1966, Kay married her Husband, Brian, in London’s Chelsea and the happy couple became parents to two Daughters, Claire and Michelle – and Kay is now a proud Grandmother to Granddaughter, Phoebe.
Kay has always loved to travel. “I’ve been very fortunate to have been to many places throughout the world,” continued Kay. “One of the most spectacular places I’ve seen has to be The Grand Canyon. It’s considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and at 277 miles long, 6,093 feet deep and up to 18 miles wide, it really is astounding. Some of the rocks on the Canyon’s inner walls are 250 million to two billon years old!”
A secret passion of Kay’s is Concord, the world’s first and only scheduled supersonic passenger airplane. “I always wanted to fly on Concord,” said Kay. “I never had the chance to be a passenger whilst the planes were in service, but I did manage to take a tour of one of the Concord planes once they had retired.
“I was, and still am, fascinated that Concord flew faster than the rotation of the earth and could pick up passengers from London at breakfast time and have them in New York before the US breakfast time on the same day,” Kay added.
Kay has always liked to keep fit and healthy and has enjoyed many types of sports. “I used to like a good game of Badminton,” Kay continued. “I was also rather good, well, in my eyes, at Tennis, and at school I was on the Netball and Hockey teams.”
Kay still enjoys keeping fit and never misses an exercise class at Redcot. “Ann, our Activities Coordinator, always makes sure our days are full of interesting and fun things to do. She arranges plenty of classes and engaging activities for us to take part in. I adore the exercise classes and also love our weekly music class,” added Kay.
“It’s really great having Kay live with us at Redcot,” said Jan Daly, the Registered Manager at Redcot. “She’s a really lovely lady who always has a smile for everyone and such interesting life stories – she has us enthralled by her travel and work tales. We all wanted to make Kay’s day as special as possible, as she means so much to everyone at Redcot. Kay is one of our Redcot family and deserved a special day just as special as she is.”
“I’m so very happy living at Redcot and have had a wonderful birthday. Celebrating with my family and care home friends was brilliant. Everyone here is so caring, kind and so helpful. I couldn’t wish for a better place to live,” said Kay.
“Whilst we were chatting, enjoying my delicious birthday afternoon tea, I was asked what three people – past or present – I’d like to have dinner with. I said it would be Florence Nightingale, as she could keep us all healthy, Winston Churchill as he’d have lots of interesting stories to share and Darcy Bussell as she could get us all up dancing. I think that dinner party would be rather fun and entertaining,” concluded Kay.
Find out more about Redcot care home by calling 01428 644 637 or emailing enquiries@fote.org.uk.