I recently mentioned that I performed Sax at the 100th Birthday celebration of Mrs Zillah Brown (see previous blog).  I still feel honoured to be part of a memorable and special occasion of the Brown family which consists of Mr Brown, who is now late; their 10 children (two are late); 35 Grand-children, 44 Great-Grand-Children and 25 Great-Great-Grand-Children.  Being there and seeing her family of different age ranges, nationalities some flew in from USA and Australia, it was just awesome.    The Lord Mayor of Birmingham attended to read The Queen’s birthday message to Mrs Brown.

The best anecdote of the night was when we heard that she could no longer read the information on the screen at her Church services due to a recent degenerative eye disease.  It was suggested that the Church purchase a Tablet for her, she replied ‘I don’t want one as I am already taking too many tablets!’, LOL!.  She now uses a Tablet at Church.

I visited Mrs Brown at her home a couple days after.  Her front garden boasted, and rightly so, of a  large inflated 100 birthday balloon.  The family had put on a second but smaller home celebration that week.  Mrs Brown was rather relaxed about the whole affair, still spritely recalling names, dates and times of events in her years.  I understand she still cooks, attends church and has more energy than some of her children – wow! What a role model!

Here’s a short video of Mrs Zillah Brown’s 100th Birthday celebration.  Enjoy.