If that's the incredulous answer, then the question that precedes it is 'how old was Ross's mother at the start of April?'
And yes – the indomitable Majean, as she is known, finally made it all the way to her big day and hit her century.
Heralding a big influx to the wilds of Derbyshire by her family – her children (Ross and his lovely sister Hilary), her grandchildren and the 5 (I think?!) great-grandchildren – all appearing in her care home for the little party. Not forgetting Flossy the (real) dog and Majean's new 'robot' white cat Zoe, which purrs, miaows, rolls over and generally feels quite cat-like!
Plus me, the weird family hanger-on, there to say a special birthday hello to Majean, to take the group photos at the do and to celebrate Ross's own birthday with him & Janine the day after Majean's. The only slight tricky element was that Majean – who very much still knows her own mind – felt a bit too overwhelmed to emerge from her room and join us all for her 100th get-together!
So, we all gathered in the glorious northern sunshine, chatted over tea & cake and then spent various bits of time back at Hilary & Jim's house nearby, who very kindly turned out piles of breakfast, cuppas and company for several sittings of family visitors each day. And watched my horse come in 5th in the Grand National, netting me a princely £7.50 that no, didn't quite cover my big splurging stake across various hopeless horsies of £12 this year.
We stayed in a little cottage about 30 mins away, clearly owned by big fans of Orla Kiely. Had a nice group pub supper & soiree on Majean's big day – of course having admired her card from the King (and although she'd much have preferred one from the Queen, Majean was slightly smug to have outlived her!). Went for a few doggy walks by the river, while Ross saw his mother again the next day, plus a mini pub crawl on Ross's birthday afternoon.
All in all a very nice northern sojourn and I'm still very impressed to know someone who made it to the big 1-0-0, and is still going strong x x