BRIGHT pink balloons and a card from the Queen helped one centenarian celebrate her milestone birthday surrounded by her family.

Renée Gaze celebrated her 100th birthday with her 102-year-old husband Harold on Sunday, August 23, with a musical gathering of four generations of her family.

Harold and Renée fell in love at first sight after meeting at a Methodist holiday camp in Norfolk in 1938 and were married less than two years later in March 1940.

Renee said: “We were married at Finchley Lane Baptist Church in Hendon. I remember the church was packed with people and we had a lovely day.”

After the wedding the couple moved around the country because of Harold’s work.

He said: “I wasn’t called up for the forces because of my job. I worked for building firm John Laing constructing airfields.

“We lived in lots of different places, including Tempsford in Bedfordshire and in Portsmouth, before we ended up in Cricklewood towards the end of the war.

“We moved to Wemborough Road, Stanmore, in late 1945.”

A librarian before they met, Renée looked after the home and also spent a lot of time looking after her own elderly mother, as well as their daughter Jennifer, who was born in 1942.

Renée continued to be an arts and crafts enthusiast, particularly enjoying flower arranging and knitting, and later ran a handicrafts group in nearby sheltered housing. She was also a keen gardener.

After his retirement, Harold took up golf and played three times a week at his course in Stanmore.

He was also in demand at the couple’s church, Stanmore Baptist Church in Abercorn Road, as an organist.

Renée said: “We’re so lucky to have had such a long and happy life together and it’s lovely to be able to celebrate it with my family around me.

“I’m thrilled to have my message from the Queen, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself.”

After 67 years in Stanmore, the couple now live in a care home in Kent and celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in March.

Claire Davis, registered manager at the home, said: “It’s always lovely to have one of our residents celebrate their hundredth birthday, but to have a married couple of centenarians is something truly special.

“It was of course so important for them to be able to live together, and we are delighted to have enabled them to do this.”

With the couple’s daughter Jennifer Gravatt at the piano, the family sung Happy Birthday and Amazing Grace before tucking into tea and cakes.

Jennifer, a retired teacher, said: “We’ve always been a musical family – everybody plays something, and when we get together the performances seem to happen spontaneously.

“My father’s repertoire is all in his head – people would just shout something out and he’d be able to play it.

“He thoroughly enjoys performing, and it’s great that his hands are still working properly after all these years.”