Nancy, 90, checks out of Shrewsbury store after 48 years
When check-out girl Nancy Ball woke up ahead of her final shift at a supermarket 48 years after she first started, she was expecting one last day serving the customers she has grown to love.
But her colleagues at the Asda store, in Old Potts Way, Shrewsbury, had other ideas and went about planning a send-off fit for a queen.
The 90-year-old, who first joined the store under the former Safeway supermarket brand in 1965, was chauffeur driven to and from work yesterday and more than 100 staff turned up for a lunchtime party where she was presented with a number of gifts.
She was then serenaded by a ukulele band before making a final goodbye speech to hundreds of shoppers over the supermarket tannoy system.
"It has been absolutely wonderful. It is like a dream and I haven't come back down to earth yet," she said.
"I don't think anybody has ever had a send-off like this and I thought it was the Queen coming to my door this morning when a car with pink ribbons on turned up."
Jenny Williams, for Asda, said: "We haven't got another Nancy – she is a one-of-a-kind and will be sorely missed by everyone. There must have been 100 people in the canteen at lunch and many had actually come in on their day off – that's how popular she was.
"She is an amazing lady and we've tried to make a fuss of her which is why, when I drove her to work this morning, I put pink ribbons on my car."
