Annie’s still looking great at 108!

Date published: 12 March 2010

CLEAN living, plain food, fresh air, exercise and hard work are the secret to long life for Annie Ormrod.

And the great-great-grandmother should know after celebrating her 108th birthday — making her one of the country’s oldest people.

Annie was born in Oldham a year after Queen Victoria was succeeded to the throne by her son Edward VII.

She attended Derker School and won a scholarship to high school, but left to work in a mill and then munitions during both the first and second world wars.

A keen cyclist when she was young, she met her husband, John, at the Clarion Cycle Club and the pair married at the Unitarian Church, Lees, in 1927. John died in 1975.

They initially lived in Percival Street, Oldham Edge, before moving to Derker and had four children: Peggy, Joan, Leslie and Frank, who died in 1964.

Annie worked in a variety of jobs, including as a home help, and daughter Joan Wiseman said: “Dad was out of work for six years and mum worked really hard to keep us going. I think that’s the reason she’s living to such an incredible age.

“She’s a survivor, a wonderful home maker and had really good health. She would say clean living, plain food, fresh air and exercise and I think she’s the proof of the pudding really.

“Mum’s a wonder and she has still got her faculties.

“She has been so grateful for all the friendship that she has received.”

The family were involved with Hope Congregational Church and Annie now has 15 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

She moved to sheltered housing in Oldham in the 1980s before going to live with Joan near Morecambe in 1994.

Now in a care home, she received a card from the Queen to mark her birthday.

“The Queen was pictured wearing a red dress when mum was 100. When she was 105 it was a yellow dress and it was still yellow at 106 and 107,” added Joan.

“It was a different dress this time so that pleased mum!” 

* Britain’s oldest woman is believed to be Florrie Baldwin, of Leeds, who will be 114 at the end of the month.