LILY and Jim Darwin thought they were just going out for a quiet meal with their son and daughter to celebrate Lily’s 90th birthday.
But when they stepped into the Lymm Hotel, a band struck up and there were cries of “Surprise, Surprise.”
No less than 94 of their family and friends were there to celebrate the occasion.
Lily and Jim have lived in Albany Road, Statham for 31 years and have become very much part of village life.
But it might never have happened because Lily – then Lillian Henson, of Leak Street, Old Trafford – was a survivor of the Manchester Blitz of Christmas 1940.
The house was destroyed by a German bomb – and the family moved to Stretford.
In 1949, Lily married Jim and in 1952, after saving to raise a deposit, bought their first house together in Gorse Street, Stretford, where they lived for the next 30 years, have two children, John and Julie.
It was in 1982 that they moved to Statham – just before Lily retired from Parkinson and Cowan in Stretford where she worked as a production line inspector.
Lily is now a regular member of the congregation at Lymm Methodist Church and likes to go shopping in Lymm Village where she meets her many friends.
She loves gardening and, weather permitting, tends her plants and shrubs almost every day.
A grandmother to Steven, Joanna, Sarah and Gemma she is also a great grandmother to Jack, six, Lucas, three, Sophie, three and Lilly, three.
Son John said: “Both Mum and Dad were overwhelmed when they came into the room and saw all their family, friends and relations, including some who they hadn’t seen for almost 50 years.
“It was a wonderful occasion.”
Pictured: Jim and Lily with the family and, right, birthday girl Lily
