Artistic Sandy schoolgirl creates beauitful birthday gift for gran during lockdown

With the pandemic restricting family celebrations to conversations through a window, artistic granddaughter Jenna Riches created a special piece to give her gran a day to remember.

The creative 13-year-old visited Margaret Riches for her birthday on May 24 and took along chalk crayons to draw on the pavements with her little brother.

But seeing a wall opposite her grandmother’s front window, inspiration came to Jenna!

She said: “We weren’t allowed to be with my gran on her birthday, so we spoke to her outside one of her windows - we couldn’t give her a hug or anything.

“So I thought, if I can do something to make her smile it will bring a bit of light in these times.

“I just started drawing on the wall and started thinking of different things to do.

“I hope it puts a smile on other people’s faces. That’s what I like to see, people smiling.”

During the family visit, Jenna and her little brother also drew a cake and wrote the words ‘Happy Birthday’ on the pavement outside Margaret’s house.

Jenna gave her gran a beautiful birthday card as a gift, too, painting colourful flowers and using her calligraphy skills.

Margaret, who contacted the Biggleswade Chronicle about Jenna’s gesture, said: “Jenna had these big chunky chalks and I was just astounded at what she’d done.

“She’s very reserved about her talent and the thing I love about her is that there’s not a streak of vanity in her.”

Jenna’s uncle, Adrian Riches, who works as an art teacher in London, said: “Jenna is doing her GCSEs and her artwork is beautiful. For someone of her age to be producing the quality of drawing and painting that she’s doing is quite remarkable.

“Everyone in the block was talking about her flowers for days and my mother wants her granddaughter, my niece, to know just how proud she is.”