Sunday, August 18, 2024 -Mary Spiers, from Manchester, turns 106 today, August 18.
To mark her birthday, she shared what
she believes is the key to a long life.
She says she got to this age by
steering clear of men, preferring to live unmarried with her sisters in a house
in Cheshire until just a month ago.
Revealing the key to her long life,
Mary said: "I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t chase men!
"You just get up and get on with
the day. You just live every day, every minute and you don’t realise it’s
piling up.
"I’ve got a sense of humour, and
it gets you through some difficult times. It’s not been all happy. It’s been
sad in lots of ways."
Mary had a boyfriend once, an RAF man
she met during the Second World War before he died shortly after the war.
After that, she spent time living her
own adventures, which have seen her bounce around the country and work a total
of 14 jobs across her life.
After a stint in Southampton, until
she was 18, Mary's furniture-selling dad moved the family back north to
Manchester to escape the bombing of the port city.
Mary said: "I remember the
bombs, the incendiary bombs, everywhere shattered. Once you’ve heard one, you
never want to hear another one.
"I’m lucky to be here really.
Lots of those boys who fought, a lot of them were only 17. Let’s hope we never
have another war."
From then on she held more than a
dozen jobs, as a cleaner, weaver and cinema usher, even working on British war
hero General Montgomery’s car while employed at Chrysler.
Instead of getting married, Mary
suggests preferring the companionship of her two sisters Ruth and Dorothy, who
also lost their boyfriends during the war.
Mary said: "No one would have
me! But I’m here to tell the tale. I had two lovely sisters, and we were very
close. We were what you call a close-knit family.
"At times it wasn’t easy, there
wasn’t much money coming in. But we did everything together.
"We went away together, we did
the housework, the decorating, and the gardening. We didn’t need anyone else,
we had each other. We had enough.
"We just went day by day. Some
things you enjoy, some things you detest but you just get on with it and earn a
living. But it’s all been interesting. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
"The family I’ve got left are
lovely. I’ve also got some lovely friends here, they couldn’t have been nicer
to me. There is a man who moved in the other day who is 104.
"Where I’m going to end up, I
don’t know. I read in the paper some time ago that someone abroad was 117. 117!
I thought well I don’t want to live to 117."
Queen Elizabeth sent her a 100th
birthday card in 2018, while a second came from King Charles and Queen Camilla
for her 105th last year.
Her cousin and next of kin, Henry
Hesketh, 89, said: "She’s been wonderful. As a child, she used to do a lot
for me. But all my life she’s been there. We’re very proud of her.
“As a person, she’s always got a joke
for you every five minutes. You just have to laugh. She’s just a happy person.
And I think that’s why she’s still with us because she looks on the bright side
the whole time.”
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