Kensington Redondo Beach guests ride scissor lift up to 91-year-old’s birthday party
Kensingston Redondo resident Margie Jones waives to guests at her 91st birthday party. Photos courtesy of Kensington Redondo
Kensington Redondo Beach resident Margaret Jones hoped to celebrate her 91st birthday on April 7 with her adopted granddaughter Lucy Cavazos. The two have celebrated their birthdays together for the past 20 consecutive years.
Cavazos, who is 46, ordered pink and gold Happy Birthday bunting and a big flower-frosted birthday cake with the words “91 never looked so good.” But that was before Jones was caught in the coronavirus lockdown.
Lucy Cavazos and daughter Amber sing Happy Birthday to Kensington Redondo resident Margie Jones.
Since the pandemic, Kensington has been allowing visitors to see first floor residents through their closed windows and to talk over walkie talkies. But Jones is on the second floor.
When Kensington executive director Robert May became aware of the birthday party tradition he thought of his new scissor lift. It was due for delivery for second floor construction work the week of Jones’s birthday.
Jones and Cavazos met in 1994. Jones owned the South Gate apartment building where Cavazos lived and made a practice of checking in on her tenants.
Margie Jones 91st birthday cake.
“We became friends on our first meeting. Margie didn’t drive, so I drove for her. Then she asked me to look after her apartment buildings,” Cavazos said
“When my two children were born, she became their adopted grandma. One year, on my birthday, Margie insisted we celebrate it for the whole month. Everyday at lunchtime, we’d leave the office for a different restaurant. Margie would say to the servers, ‘It’s Lucy’s birthday,’ and they’d sing happy birthday.”
“When it was Margie’s birthday, we did the same thing,” Cavazos said.
Last Tuesday Kensington’s new scissors lift was festooned with pink and white helium balloons, and the pink and gold Happy birthday bunting Cavazos had ordered.
Cavaos handed the birthday cake to Kensington caregivers who brought it up to Jone’s second story room. Then, despite a light afternoon rain, Cavazos and her oldest daughter Amber, now 25, stepped onto the scissor lift and rode up to Jones’s closed window. After catching up with one another through their walkie talkies, the Cavazos and the Kensington Redondo caregivers sang “Happy Birthday to Margie.”
Margie Jones celebrated her 91st birthday in isolation because of the coronavirus.
May said everyone was so touched by the birthday celebration, that the scissor lift is being made available for visitors to other second story residents. [Additional reporting courtesy of Kensington Redondo.] ER