Healthy eating and staying active for as long as possible is the key to a long and happy life according to one Suffolk woman who has celebrated her 100th birthday.
Flora Head was joined by 30 members of family and friends to celebrate her birthday where her youngest grandson performed a collection of her favourite songs to mark the occasion on January 13.
There was birthday cake and plenty of tea to wash it all down while those attending the party perused a very special birthday card from the Queen.
Mrs Head, who now lives in sheltered accommodation in Bramford, turned 100 on January 15 and says living a long and happy life is down to eating healthily and staying active for as long as possible.
Mrs Head’s daughter, Ann Spall, said: “At 93 my mother could walk faster than me!”
Born in Langham, Essex, in 1919 where she has her fondest childhood memories, Mrs Head attended Langham school leaving at the the age of 14 to become a head maid.
Mrs Head married her husband Ernest in 1939 and the couple were happily married for 67 years.
She said: “We met at a fairgound and didn’t see each other until three years later when we bumped into one another in the street. I told my friends when we first met that I would marry him – and I did.”
Her husband went off to war and on his return the couple settled down in Freston, Suffolk, for about seven years where Mr Head became a groom and Mrs Head brought up the family.
The couple had three children together – Brian in 1940, Ann in 1944 and Dennis in 1948.
The couple moved around the county later spending time in Easton, Bramford and Bury St Edmunds. Throughout their adult years Mrs Head developed a love for performing and was at her happiest on stage in her amateur dramatics group.
The group would travel around the county performing in different villages. The born performer also spent a lot of time gardening, knitting and dressmaking.
Ernest died suddenly at the age of 92 in 2006, a sad time for Mrs Head, who now has five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren.
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