Big celebrations for Blackpool's ‘Lovely Lily’ on her 103rd birthday

Lily celebrated her milestone birthday on Saturday with staff and residents at Berwick House Care Home in South Shore where she lives.

In her lifetime she has worked as a shop assistant, a seamstress, a cleaner and a decorator.

She said: “I have always kept busy and I am not one for just sitting about. I have had an eventful life and I’ve done everything you can think.

“I don’t think people realise how lucky they are today. I have had to face facts and get on with life and help other people.”

Born in Chapeltown in Sheffield in 1917, Lily moved to Hornby Road, Blackpool in 1938 with her mother who had bought a boarding house.

A year later, and a week into the Second World War, she married Ernest ‘Mac’ McGowan who she had courted for six years.

However not long after tying the knot, Mac went to serve his country and Lily didn’t hear from him for four years.

She said: “He was a prisoner of war and I was never told if he was alive of dead. It was only after he managed to escape to Switzerland that I heard from him again.”

The couple remained married for 73 years until Mac’s death in 2013, aged 96.

Despite living through the war, she considers the Covid-19 lockdown as being “much worse”.

She said: “Even during the war we were still able to get out the house and go and see friends.

“Before coronavirus came along I was still making a weekly trip to Morrisons to see my friends for a coffee and catch up.”

Lily was also happy to have received her fourth birthday card from the Queen.

Berwick House Care Home manager Angela Baxendale said “she’s our lovely Lily” and describes her as being the boss.

She said: “She is the oldest resident in the care home and she is the boss as well. Every one follows her lead and what she says, goes.

“She’s a remarkable woman and I love listening to her stories. It was really nice she decided to come to Berwick House as well. She said last year that it was where her Mac was for years and she wanted to be in the same place he was.

“I remember going round to her house and she had already took pictures down ready to move to the home!”