Joyce Watt thought her 80th birthday was going to be the biggest non-events of her life, but it turned out to be one of the best.

A special birthday lunch at Le Talbooth, in Dedham had to be cancelled, along with a host of other planned events.

She could not be with her partner of 34 years, Ian, who is in St Mary's care home, and with lock down in full force Joyce from Tattingstone, was not expecting much of a celebration.

That was before ladies from her local Women's Institute used their daily walk allowance to gather outside her home to sing her a birthday song, a 16-year-old neighbour baked her as strawberry-topped cake, and her son Anthony, made a special visit to have a social distancing lunch, complete with some bubbly.

"I was thinking to myself 'what a year I have chosen to be 80' with all this going on and things being cancelled," said Joyce. "But it turned out to be a wonderful day.

"I got an amazing 29 cards, the ladies surprised me with a bouquet of flowers, which was lovely, but even better still was when five of them, along with friends from the choir and others came to my garden, stood well apart and then sang 'Happy Birthday' to me.

"I had not been expecting that, so it was a lovely surprise."

That was not all as Joyce's son, known as Ant, who had been picking up her shopping for her, brought a buffet lunch, and a bottle of Champagne.

Octogenarian Joyce said: "I brought a couple of chairs out and even though we had to sit well apart in the garden, we had a lovely lunch. My seven-year-old grandson had made a dinosaur poster, and the children sang to me as well. It was quite overwhelming."

Freya Ewart, the teenage daughter of neighbour Fiona and granddaughter of Pauline, one of her long-time friends, baked her a strawberry topped cake, and other well-wishers gave their congratulations from a distance.

The former infant schoolteacher is a well-known personality in the Tattingstone area, involved in numerous village groups and organisations over the years.

She said: "We always told the children, to have friends you need to be a friend.

"I suppose I'm lucky to live I such a lovely village as Tattingstone where there are so many good friends.

"Although this is a horrible situation we are in, it is amazing to see so many people pulling together and being so kind to each other."

Joyce admitted it took her a couple of days to come down from the excitement of her big day, but is now looking forward to be able to see her partner Ian once again.

She said: "We had people in from We Simply Care and they were wonderful but he needed to go into St Mary's.

"The last time I was able to visit him was with or poetry group, I really hope to be able to go and visit him again soon."

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