90 yr old birthday gift

For one of my big birthdays I received a cushion with lots of photographs of myself and various family members and friends. It sits with pride in my favourite chair. I love it.

Something he likes to eat or drink, or comfortable clothing. Some nice pyjamas or slippers, or a warm sweater with larger buttons.

My Dad had a treasured black and white photo of himself aged 20 proudly posing with his new bicycle. For his 90th birthday I had the photo printed onto a mug. He was delighted with it. I now have it in my kitchen cupboard but don’t use it in case I break it.

Ooh I shall watch this thread with interest as my stepfather will be 90y in a few weeks. I’d like some ideas too.

You can buy a beautiful whisky glass and have it engraved. We did that for a friend’s 80th and he loved it. He has a small nip every night before bed and said it makes his dram special.

If your memories with him are good ones, why not compile a collection of memories? Ask family members and friends to record something that made them laugh, or an account of a special occasion with him. Add in pictures of places that mark parts of his life, souvenirs, stuff like that. You can do it in a scrapbook or as a video.

A friend of mine recently asked all her Dad’s friends, going way back to old school chums, to record a short video, and then she edited it together with pictures, for example, of the house he was born in and the playground of his primary school. It took her a bit of time and some travelling to get all the pictures, but the end result was a very joyful celebration of his life. I’m sure it’s better to do that while someone is still around to enjoy it. Too often we save our memories of people for their funerals.

What a nice thread this is. Sadly all my old folk are dead now, the last of Covid in 2020, but reading about these gifts has made me feel how ideal and thoughtful they are. My stepfather would have loved the whisky glass!!

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The best present my husband got for his 90th was a trial flying lesson. In fact he said it was the best present EVER. I had checked online first and also rung the flying school. Their only restrictions were that he was under I think it was 16 stones weight and could get up into the plane. I found out it was far cheaper to book direct with the flying school than to book through one of the "experience" companies. On his birthday we drove to the flying school, about 30 miles away, (he had no idea where we were going) and he checked he could get up into the cockpit. I went to the desk and they gave me choices. In the end I paid about £20 more to book a four seater plane as it meant that I could also go up with them, in the back at no extra charge. They printed out a voucher and said if I was happy to go up midweek usually a days notice for the flight was enough so that I could wait for a good weather forecast. Even that visit made my husband's day but the actual flight surpassed all his expectations . We picked a beautiful sunny day, got there early and spent half an hour watching anti terrorist police practising dropping out of a helicopter on ropes. Once aboard the plane the instructor gave my husband a choice of routes. He chose to fly out to the coast over where he used to go sailing. The instructor took off. My husband then took the controls and stayed in control until the instructor brought us into land an hour later. Afterwards he was given a certificate which he framed.
Although this was quite expensive it was actually cheaper than I imagined and I'm sure that family could band together to pay for it if needed.
The flying club also had a nice restaurant/bar where we spent the following couple of hours.