Buckie woman celebrates 100th birthday at Netherha Care Home
There was a very special birthday party for a remarkable lady at a local care home.
The generations gathered at Netherha Care Home in Buckie to celebrate the town’s latest centenarian, Patricia Innes.
There were cards aplenty to open, including ones from King Charles and Queen Camilla, the Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire Andrew Simpson - who popped into the festivities to wish Patricia all the best on her big day - and Moray Council.
Family members provided musical accompaniment, including some of her favourites, such as Que Sera Sera. There was to be more music later on to go with the tea and birthday cake when the Buckie Belles from Buckie and District Community Choir arrived.
Her journey through the last 100 years has been a remarkable one, taking her from a tea estate in Sri Lanka through Cairnfield Estate just outside Buckie to, ultimately, Netherha Care Home.
However, it is the simple things in life that remain the most important for this sprightly grand old lady.
She said: “Having all my family here with me today is very important to me, it’s just marvellous and I’m very grateful to be here to see it.
“I think I’m very lucky to have lived to 100 - I don’t feel 100! I can still get up and walk, albeit a bit more slowly than before.
“Over the years I found all of the changes we’ve seen so interesting. When I was a girl cameras, for example, were like boxes that you had to squeeze and now you see what they’re like today.
“There’s no secret to reaching 100, it’s just one of those things, it’s just fate. I’ve just been very, very lucky which I’m so grateful for.”
Congratulating Patricia on her magnificent milestone, Mr Simpson commented: “Birthdays are special.
“None more so than the remarkable milestone of 100.
“It was a great pleasure to join Patricia Innes and her family and read the birthday message from Their Majesties the King and the Queen.
“Alongside the cake and celebrations it was wonderful to hear Patricia recalling her long and varied life. Congratulations to Patricia!”
Patricia was born in 1925 in Sri Lanka where her father worked on a tea estate.
Sadly, he passed away in 1934 and the family had to move back to the UK. However, this was to be a case of adieu rather than a final farewell, with family connections facilitating a return in 1940.
Life was certainly not dull for the then-teenage Patricia who went on to work in a private school. The onset of World War II saw her employed in the naval office in the Sri Lankan capital Columbo.
Romance was to blossom when she met Geordie Gordon, who was convalescing from injury. The couple were to return to Cairnfield Estate in 1946 where they were married.
They were to be blessed with two sons and, in the 1980s, two grandchildren were added to the family.
There was sadness to come, though, in the following decade when Geordie died in 1994.
Patricia was to find love again a few years later when, at the turn of the century, she met and married Billy Innes. The couple lived in Aberlour until Billy’s death around seven years later, which saw her move back to Cairnfield.
A move to her current home at Netherha was to beckon in 2011.
During this time Patricia became a great grandmother.
A very self-contained and tidy person, she loved to read, particularly historical novels and books. Her talent for cooking was matched by a fine eye for colour and tone which shone through in her drawing and painting.
During her early years at Cairnfield Patricia was involved in the farm and also undertook a lot of charity work.
She also had a great love of gardening, a passion she shared with her mother.
