Today is Papa Dave’s 80th birthday. The celebrations began on Saturday when the Happy House family held a surprise party for him – with lovely food, lots of entertainment and presents, of course. Papa Dave was quite happy running a small hotel in Blackpool with his wife, Sue, and looking forward to a retirement in the sunshine of Tenerife when in 2000, he took Sue on a holiday to Kenya that was the change the course of their lives. Seeing the extent of poverty in a local school Sue and Dave started to help, when they got home Sue had got her sights firmly on doing a lot more than buying school books and pencils. In the next seven years she transformed the school, but also discovered a much greater need amongst children homeless or excluded by poverty, family tragedy or, in extreme cases, abused. She embarked on her plan to raise the money to build a children’s home – her Happy House. Dave provided all the support she needed. And when her dream became a reality he faced the total life change of living in Kenya. “If Sue’s happy, I’m happy,” he’d say. He meant it. And so they became Mama Sue and Papa Dave to our Happy House family. In each other, and their Kenyan family, they had all they needed. They weathered many storms but were never defeated. Sue’s sudden death almost two years ago was devastating for Dave, but with the support of his loving Happy House family and our charity trustees he did what Sue would have done, buttoned up his uniform and got on with continuing Sue’s mission. , Papa Dave is showing himself to be a force to be reckoned with. He keeps the Happy House on course with determination and good humour. He deserves all our thanks and the very best wishes for the happiest of birthdays. In this video Harry is helping Uncle Ibrahim and Uncle Julius to decorate thye banda for the party. You can see Saturday’s live coverage of the party on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/happyhousewatamu
