Surprise 90th birthday party for "crafty" Nanny Wyn (From Watford Observer)

Surprise 90th birthday party for "crafty" Nanny Wyn

8:40am Thursday 9th February 2012 in News

Friends, neighbours and family have joined together for a surprise birthday party for a 90-year old Garston great-grandmother at Stanborough Park Seventh-day Adventist Church.

To add to the surprise Wynifrid Snailham was amazed to find her close family had made it all the way from Ireland and the USA to be with her on her special day.

Born in Worthing, West Sussex, on February 5, 1922 Wyn married William Snailham (who died 13 years ago) who had moved into the area from Watford to work in a local dry cleaner’s.

After the birth of Elaine and Charles they moved back to Watford and added three more children to their family, Garry, Mary and Stephen.

Mary was born with spina bifida and so required special nursing and Wyn would work nights so that she was able to care for her during the day.

This culminated in Wyn donating a kidney to Mary in 1980 which enabled Mary to live her life to the full for many more years and bring her second child into the world - she was the first woman in Great Britain with spina bifida to mother two children.

Wyn has a large and loving family with four of her five children alive, 19 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren, some of whom still live locally.

Wyn has always been an active lady and very "crafty" with her hobbies including knitting, sewing, crocheting, "smocking", cooking, cake-making and swimming.

She made the wedding dresses for her two daughters and three daughters-in-law as well as their wedding cakes and the wedding cakes for most of her grandchildren.

Wyn moved to her home in Garston in 1983 not long after she was baptised as a member of the Stanborough Park Church in February, 1982. She is still a regular worshipper.

Wyn immediately became an active member and put her craft skills to good use as teacher in the Kindergarten Sabbath School where she was known to the children (aged between 4 and 7) as "Nanny Wyn" and continued in this role until a few years ago when she was not longer able to climb the stairs to be with them.

But she still maintains her interest in that area and has continued to make gifts for the children to take home on a weekly basis.

For the current week she is in the process of making 30 card doves to accompany the story of Noah’s Ark which the children are learning.

Knitted gifts are made for each child at Christmas and Easter and have included Father Christmas and Christmas trees and she is currently in the process of knitting 30 chicks for Easter.

Her son, Garry, estimated that over the years she must have made 44,000 of these little gifts for the children. Many of them have kept them over the years and retain very fond memories of Nanny Wyn.

Wyn’s devotion to others was summed up by her son, Garry, at the party, quoting Abraham Lincoln: "It is not the years in your life that count. But the life in your years."