When the coronavirus lockdown confined mother-of-seven Margaret Bevington to her own home, she and her family realised one really sad fact - that her 100th birthday would not be marked by a big family get-together.
But when the people living in her street in Bristol found out that this remarkable lady would be reaching a century with little fanfare, they decided to do something about it.
With Margaret knowing little of what was going to happen until she was invited to sit in a chair outside the front of her home in Henleaze on the morning of her 100th birthday, on Thursday, May 7.
And what she saw when she stepped outside was a whole choir of her neighbours and friends - accompanied by a cellist, a keyboardist and a horn player - who had turned out to sing Happy Birthday to her.
Margaret soaked in the congratulations, waving her arms as if conducting and holding the card she received from the Queen, obviously delighted by the surprise.
The redoubtable woman was a wartime nurse in a hospital in Hammersmith in her early 20s.
She would work long shifts by day in the wards during the years of endless bombing of London.
And then at night, she and her colleagues would be sent onto the roof of the hospital armed with stirrup pumps, to extinguish any incendiary bombs that landed on the hospital, before then going to catch some sleep on mattresses in the basement.
VE Day came the day after her 25th birthday.
Margaret went on to become a mother of seven, and six of her children are still alive, and are spread all across the country, with one as far away as Canada.
Plans for a big get-together to mark her 100th birthday collapsed when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and only her son who is based in Bristol has been able to come to see her.
“She has been getting a bit low with all this, because she’s such an amazing, lively person and does not like being told to stay in all the time,” said her friend Edwina Lloyd.
“It’s been very difficult to lift her, as her birthday approached, so I thought such a momentous day should not pass quietly.”
Edwina printed off a little leaflet and posted in her neighbours doors, asking people to come out at 11am to sing happy birthday.
Others got involved, and a post on social media produced the musical instruments.
“I knew she would love that, because she has a very musical family,” said Edwina. “She’s just a lovely lady.”
