My husband, Eladio's surprise early retirement party - Madrid 25th June 2005

In July I organised a surprise retirement party for my darling husband Eladio. It took me 3 weeks and with a little help from my friends and daughters we created a great do. We held the party at home in the garden and more than 40 people came, including some old colleagues he hadn't seen for 20 years or so. We also created a little album with the graphic history of his life - cool! The girls sang (beautifully - Oli cried when she sang Edelweiss for him) and his brother Alejandro had us in stitches with a comic act at the end of the night.

It was difficult for me to keep the secret for so long and I was having kittens on the last day. The hardest thing was getting him out of the house for the party to be created - the chairs and table, food, banners, balloons, people to arrive and park in another street. My friend Fátima texted me to say everything was ready. When we got out of the car Eladio saw the balloons and thought the girls were having a party and so suggested we went out for dinner so I had to drag him in.
The pictures are of his surprised face, the people waiting for him and lovely one of his mother hugging him - his Mother now in her 80's and not very mobile had made a huge effort to be there.