Care home resident receives more than 5000 cards for 100th birthday
5 February 2021, 18:01 | Updated: 5 February 2021, 18:03
Carehome resident gets thousands of cards for 100th birthday
A Birmingham care home resident with no surviving family has received over 5000 cards ahead of her 100th birthday following a Facebook appeal from her carers.
Lilian Greenwood, who will reach the milestone on February 13, has no close family members left.
Staff at Heartlands care home, where Lilian lives, told LBC it wouldn't be right for her to get "only three or four cards", so appealed on Facebook for support from the community.
In a post, Heartlands care home staff member Stacey Debney said: "We have a lovely lady who will be turning 100 on 13th February, unfortunately she doesn't have any close family. I am reaching out to see if there is anyone who would be willing to send her a card to wish her happy birthday.
"If you could, we would really appreciate it and it would go a long way to making her day a special one. Her name is Lilian, her favourite colour is purple and she loves anything Royal."
Following the appeal, the care home was flooded with thousands cards and gifts for Lilian, whose birthday is still more than a week away.
Stacey told LBC: "She's a really sweet, kind lady. She's quite quiet but very cheeky and she loves her cups of tea.
"I was kind of compelled to do it for her because she is so lovely and it's such a milestone, especially during Covid, she's got to this ripe old age and it's not right that she's only going to have three or four cards, we have to do something more.
"I wasn't expecting it to happen like this. I started counting the cards yesterday and it took me all day!"
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Stacey explained that the cards she has counted up so far total around 2500, and said: "That's only about half of them, there's probably closer to 5000 now because we've had even more delivered today.
"This morning I also counted about 350 presents. It's so lovely, it's really heartwarming.
"Everyone I see come to the door with one I try and thank personally and I've written to over 4000 people to say thank you, I was up until the early hours.
"I think it's really when people have made such an effort that they get at least a thank you back."
Stacey continued: "Also, we've got loads of cakes and decorations for the day so we'll be here early setting up for her and we're going to make a throne for her on the day so she gets to sit down. We also want to get all of the Royal family memorabilia out for her.
"I think this day is probably going to be the same as the week that's just been. Since I posted it, the next day I had 200 cards already, I couldn't believe it.
"I think she will be really overwhelmed, it will go one of two ways. She'll either be really quiet and not know what to say or, because she does love the attention, she'll revel in it!
"I don't know how it's going to go, but we'll manage it so she doesn't feel overwhelmed, perhaps a celebration for the rest of the month rather than just the day."
