YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO ENJOY A SURPRISE

Saturday was John's eightieth birthday.       His daughter Theresa, seen here holding a plate, decided to spring a surprise party for him.   She began planning it in September, was aided and abetted by several people who should have known better, and the secret was kept so successfully that John, who was told he was being taken to Mass at the Priory, knew nothing about it until he arrived at the Church of Our Lady of Mercy.      He could hardly believe it when he found members of his family from across the South of England (and Wales) here to greet him, and many other friends, a good number of whom were parishioners, had joined them for a special Mass.      Afterwards the renovated Parish Hospitality Centre with its new kitchen area was put to immediate use.

They're all expecting words of wisdom, well, words at any rate.    Is he going to say something?      No, not really.    He is still in such a state of shock that he is unable to string together more than a few incoherent remarks.    This is what he would have said had he been able to think lucidly:      Thank you, every one of you for making this day so unbelievably fantastic.    Thank you, especially, Theresa, for the enormous amount of work and planning you must have done, and thank you also to all those who must have helped you to make it such a memorable day.    Thank you Fr Danny, for offering the Mass for me, and thank you Tina and Holly and Cathy and Norah and everyone who took part for helping to make it so special.    What a wonderful family I am lucky enough to be part of, and what wonderful friends I have!        

This photo of John with Charlotte, one of his three lovely granddaughters, proves conclusively that all the long-held scientific theories about physical beauty being derived from inherited genes is a load of old eyewash.




Many thanks to Brian Choules for taking these photographs at the party.