Buxton care home holds double weekend celebration as two residents turn 100

Margaret Walsh and Muriel Ross-Sharp were surrounded by friends, family members and fellow residents as they celebrated the milestone at the Argyle on Broad Walk.

Having only recently arrived from the Branksome care home, Margaret, whose birthday was on Saturday, August 27, said: “It feels great I can’t believe it. I was excited to get my card from the Queen, I never thought I would get one.”

Longtime resident Muriel, whose birthday was on Sunday, August 28, said she felt surprised to reach such a grand old age and was equally delighted with her royal mail.

Staff at the home made a great fuss of the pair, toasting them with homemade birthday cake. Manager Chelsey Mazari said: “They’re such lovely ladies and there’s nothing like a party.”

The birthday girls were taken out separately by their families, with Muriel’s son flying in from Canada to be reunited for the first time in several years, together with her three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Neither started their lives in Buxton, but made their way here later to enjoy the benefits of country living while working as secretaries, and Margaret says she still likes to spend her days with “a little bit of walking in the outdoors.”

The year they were born saw the British Empire at its territorial peak, the formation of the BBC and and the world’s first regular radio entertainment broadcasts, the establishment of the USSR, the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen, and the first female women were allowed to practice law in England.

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