A YOUNGSTER’S plan to check on her neighbours during the coronavirus pandemic saw a Wokingham street come together to wish a man in his 80s a very happy birthday.
With older and vulnerable residents being urged to stay at home for 12 weeks in a bid to reduce the risk that they will catch the virus, and pubs and restaurants closed, there are few places to go to celebrate life’s milestones.
But that wasn’t going to stop seven-year-old Alana Whitaker.
Mum Emma said: “She wanted to check on all our neighbours as she knew some were elderly or lived alone.
“Last Friday, she posted a note through every door asking if anyone needed anything, and if they did to let us know.”
The street in which they live has a community WhatsApp group, set up for the street party to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, enabling residents to keep in touch safely, while socially distancing themselves. And it was this that was pressed in to use to help celebrate their neighbour’s 86th birthday.
“I saw my elderly neighbour out the front of his house getting a bit of fresh air,” Emma said adding that he had underlying health conditions which meant that they didn’t see him very often.
They checked on him and his wife, to see if they needed anything and ensure they were OK.
“He reminded me that it was six years since we moved into the street,” Emma said, who admitted she hadn’t remembered the date, but he had: “He said, ‘I recall it as it was my 80th birthday’.
“So, we stood on our doorstep singing to him.
“Afterwards, Alana said he must be sad as we know he has two daughters that live nearby, and their families normally visit every day. On his birthday would all come round and spoilt him. She said, ‘Mummy, he can’t have a party and he was so poorly at Christmas. It’s such a shame everyone can’t sing to him’.”
Emma used the WhatsApp group to see if neighbours would join in a birthday singalong and she admitted, “I was blown away with the response”.
A music teacher neighbour arranged for his keyboard and amp to be installed in his front garden and Emma messaged the birthday boy’s daughter to ask him to come to the front window so he could hear the singing.
“There are 25 houses in our street, and I believe 22 out of 25 took part, with around 50 people stood in their front gardens and one neighbour who lives around the corner stood in the road of the cul de sac.
“We sang to make sure he had a birthday to remember.
“He was so grateful, and we’ve had calls and messages from his family thanking us and explaining he was overwhelmed that everyone would do this for him.”
If you are doing something to safely bring your community together during the pandemic, email news@wokinghampaper.co.uk
