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KATHLEEN Roach is enjoying a milestone year: celebrating her 100th birthday and becoming a great-great-grandmother and being introduced to ‘lovely’ baby Axel.
Five generations of the family were on show on Wednesday, from the proud centenarian down to the two-week-old new arrival, and they posed for photographs to mark the occasion.
A ‘cava and cake’ party to celebrate Kathleen’s centenary on March 9 was cancelled when her La Saleta residential home went into lockdown because of the coronavirus emergency - a week later the whole country went into lockdown.
Daughter Marion Fisher who was also meeting her greatgrandson Axel for the first time - organised the get-together in the gardens of the home and invited Costa Blanca News along to record the special occasion.
And so, from the top, there was centenarian Kathleen, Marion, her daughter Nicola, her daughter Angela, and a sleeping
Axel - he was born on June 29 in Dénia hospital, weighing 3.5kg (growing fast, he is now a bouncing 4kg).
A delighted and proud Kathleen said: “I am 100-years-old and this is five generations of my family; I have come out to see the new baby. I am now a great-great-grandmother and he is lovely.”
Equally delighted to meet Axel, Marion added: “I think it’s wonderful and I think Axel is absolutely gorgeous. This is a very proud moment for us all.”
She said because of Covid-19 health restrictions she was unable to visit Angela and the baby in hospital or when they first returned home - a planned family meeting last Sunday was also cancelled.
“I now have to get used to being a great-grandmother!”
Costa Blanca
Kathleen and her late husband Ted moved to the Costa Blanca in 1987 after spending years ‘wintering’ in Spain; Marion and her family followed later the same year.
The couple were keen ballroom dancers and specialists at sequence dancing; they were also members of Calpe’s Winter Club which staged a dinner dance every Saturday.
“Ted sadly died 25 years ago and mum sold their villa and moved into an apartment on the seafront in Calpe; when she began to find life difficult, she went to live in the ‘residencia’, where she receives the help she needs,” said Marion.
“She has a very active mind with a brain as sharp as a needle. She can remember everything from what she said yesterday to 50 years ago.”
And Marion, a loyal CBNews reader, said her children thought it was ‘wonderful’ to be growing up on the Costa Blanca. “They were teenagers and would cycle over to nanny’s and have breakfast when they were not at school... she would give them whatever they wanted and I wouldn’t!”
Kathleen was born in 1920 in Ealing, the second of three children in the Kerr gamily. After passing her 11Plus she attended Ealing Grammar School for Girls and met Ted while working in an office in London’s West End.
She did work during the Second World War in the offices of an Isle of Wight munitions factory. She married Ted straight after the war and they had two daughters, Marion and her younger sister.
“Like most women in those days, she gave up her career to be a housewife and mother,” said Marion. “She concentrated on family life; making clothes for us girls, keeping house and growing lovely vegetables in the garden.”
Kathleen and Ted moved from London to Kent in the 60s and when he retired bought a bungalow in Lowestoft. “Soon they were spending the winter months in Spain, eventually coming to live on the Costa Blanca in 1987.”