WHEN you celebrate a birthday as significant as your 85th you would expect people would make a fuss over you.
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For Brenda Gaved-Lorenzo, a fuss seems like an understatement.
The octogenarian fulfilled a lifelong dream on Saturday when she rode a unicorn.
Well, perhaps that is an overstatement, but close enough.
For the British born yoga swami, it was "absolutely magnificent" as she sat astride a grey horse which wore a unicorn horn made of satin and a satin saddle blanket.
Brenda was dressed as Queen Guinevere and swears she had no inkling of what her family was up to when they picked her up from her Kempsey home.
"It was a complete surprise," she says.
"They put me in the outfit and I didn't have a clue what all that was about."
Daughter Cindi Varlow says her niece Michelle came up with the idea because of her grandmother's love of unicorns.
"She truly believes she will see one some day," Cindi says.
Her mother and father arrived in Australia from Kent in 1950 as 10 pound Poms.
"They lied and got jobs on a property in Mudgee as a Jill and Jackeroo, but mum couldn't cook and dad didn't know how to shear a sheep," Cindi says.
It seems the pair were very adventurous, eventually operating businesses in Mudgee, Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.
"They ran a disco up there in the late '60s."
After parting ways with her first husband Brenda moved to Port Macquarie in 1971, where she became interested in yoga.
"Mum has always been a very spiritual person and in her mid-40s she became a yoga swami."
She taught yoga on board cruise ships up until a few years ago and still teaches three classes a week in her home yoga studio at Kempsey.
Brenda also volunteers at Macleay Valley House once a week, teaching sit down yoga and reading to residents.
"I'm very blessed that I've kept my health and my strength," she says.
On Saturday, Cindi took Brenda on a magical mystery tour to keep her in suspense.
"She took me to the airport and I thought I was going on a helicopter ride," Brenda says.
"Even when I turned down the drive to Cassegrain's she didn't guess," Cindi says, "until I stopped at Port Macquarie Horse Riding Centre, and the unicorn was right in front of her.
"She went along with it and said, 'I've finally seen a unicorn'."
With family watching on, Brenda was led around on her unicorn for about 15 minutes.
"It was a beautiful horse and mum looked confident and seemed to have a connection with the horse."
Daughters Cindi and Vanessa, their husbands Marty and Greg, sister Penny, and two of Brenda's nine grandchildren and one of her 14 great grandchildren, enjoyed a family picnic in the grounds after the fairy tale ride.
"All my family know how much I love unicorns and I want to thank them for all their effort."