Happy 90th birthday to great-grandmother Olive Lovell! She says she loves her weekly trips to our Rushden store because colleagues like Kelly Middleton, Sarah Pond and Debbie Cox are "so good" to her – helping her round the store, picking up and packing her shopping for her.
Olive, who has rheumatoid arthritis, said: "They tell me to sit down but I don't want to. I prefer to walk round if I can because they make it a pleasure and we have a laugh and a joke. They're marvellous, fantastic – I don't know what I'd do without them.
"I sometimes struggle walking because of my severe rheumatoid arthritis, but I won't let it beat me.
"Every week, I give them my shopping list and they get all of the shopping for me, and come round with me."
Store manager Sally Evans presented Olive with a bunch of flowers when she called in just before her birthday, and Olive said: "I really enjoyed what they did for me – I felt like I was 21 again! I'll never forget it. The flowers are marvellous and I'm ever so grateful."
Olive's husband Frank passed away 12 years ago. Before her retirement she worked as a secretary.
Debbie, who works in the store's customer services department, has known Olive since she started working at the store in 2006.
She said: "Her visit every Thursday is normally her only outing of the week.
"A driver from the charity Serve, who are volunteers helping local people to stay independent, drops her off every Thursday morning. Then either myself or Kelly Middleton take her round to do her shopping.
"She used to do her own shopping, then one day a few months ago she said she felt ill, so I suggested one of us go round with her. From that day, one of us has always gone round with her.
"She gives us a list, we take a trolley round and fill up her trolley. She likes to go to Sarah Pond's till every week, so we put her shopping through, pack it and get her a chair to wait for Serve to pick her up."
Debbie says everyone at the store loves chatting to Olive.
"She's chatty, bubbly and we have a laugh," said Debbie. "She's hilarious and has so many great stories. She told us that Glenn Miller asked her to dance in the forties. She was at a dance and he asked her to come over, but she was too shy and said no!
"She's always asking how we all are. My mum is 97 this year, and she's always asking how she is.
"She has daughters who live in Scotland and Wales. Deborah, who lives in Wales, came in to thank me a couple of weeks ago for looking after her mum when she visits us. That was really nice."
Olive will be spending her birthday on April 30 with her family, who will be travelling down to Rushden to join her for her big day.
