Helen Lambing’s children and grandchildren were planning a special surprise dinner at The Shoreview at Riverside retirement home in Windsor for her 85th birthday.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down to non-essential visitors, they had to come up with a plan B.

So, on Sunday afternoon they gathered outside her room with balloons and serenaded her with a very loud rendition of Happy Birthday.

A worker told her to go to her window, “and they started all waving and I waved back,” said Lambing in a phone interview from her room, Thursday.

“I was really excited and surprised. I was so happy to see them.”

Visits to long-term care homes and other facilities have been severely restricted due to COVID-19, as older people are particularly at risk of having more serious cases of the disease.

Lambing who’s lived at the retirement home for about a year, is originally from the former Czechoslovakia, and raised five children. Her four daughters were there for the “party” as were two of her eight grandchildren. A son-in-law and the girlfriend of a granchild joined the party as well.

Fallon Chadwick, the home’s sales and transitional coordinator, helped organize the surprise and posted a video of the improvised celebration on Facebook. It has over 500,000 views so far.

“We keep telling her she’s a rock star,” said Chadwick with a laugh.

“I never thought that it would go this far, but it’s amazing, the family, what they did for their mom. That’s what is so special here, is they went out of their way to make sure that she was special.”

Lambing was “pretty excited” to discover that half a million people have shared in her birthday moment and that she’s become a minor celebrity.

“It’s really something I never expected. I want to say thank you,” she said.

The octogenarian is “not doing too bad” and, like many of us in lockdown, is trying to stay busy.

“I try to walk around the floor for my exercise, because you can’t have anybody come here to do your exercise,” she said.

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Her advice to the younger generation feeling anxious in this uncertain time?

“Just hope everything will turn out for the best.”

Update - March 20, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version to include three other members of the family who had been present at the celebration.