A St Andrews woman who has single-handedly raised £36,000 for terminally ill children was in for a right royal surprise on her 90th birthday.
Jean Grossett was surrounded by family when she was presented with a British Empire Medal for her charity efforts.
Although the award was announced in June as part of the King’s birthday honours, she had no idea it was being bestowed by Fife’s Lord Lieutenant Robert Balfour on Thursday.
And it turned into a day of triple celebrations when her 93-year-old husband John was reunited with medals earned, then lost, following his service during the Korean War.
According to son Steve, no-one is more deserving of the honours than his parents.
20,000 greetings cards made for charity
“We’ve dubbed today mum’s coronation,” he laughed.
“Her BEM is for services to CHAS at Rachel House.
“She makes embroidered greeting cards and we reckon she must have made over 20,000 over the last 30 years.
“They have confirmed she has raised at least £36,000 for CHAS.”
He added: “She sits at night and does it. If you go to the house, the dining room is still covered in bits of glitter and card.
“She had a stroke about two months ago and she’s still recovering. But it’s not stopped her.
Jean previously volunteered at St Andrews House Care Home, where John is now resident.
Drafted to the army during USA study year
John, meanwhile, is well-known in the town, having worked for many years as a school dentist.
However, both he and Jean are originally from Dundee.
But a decision to finish school in the USA as a teenager resulted in John being drafted to fight in Korea.
“He was doing a pre-dentistry course, which he had to leave,” said Steve.
“When he eventually got back to New York, he wanted nothing more to do with it.
“They all took their uniforms off, and their medals and shoved them behind lockers and that was that.”
Thought medals were gone for good
The Grossett family never expected to see the medals until Steve took steps to have them reissued.
“They said ‘you’ll see them before 2028’,” he said.
“They didn’t realise my dad was still alive and when they found out they pulled everything out to get them here within two days.”
Jean and John have four children in all – Malcolm, 65, Steve, 63, Duncan, 61 and Lisbeth, 59.
The family lived in Canada until 1973, before returning to St Andrews where John worked as a dentist until his retiral 38 years ago.
Conversation