May bows out at 101

A GREAT grandmother who always made the most of life has died at the age of 101.

May Perrins, of Oakdene nursing and residential home in Lees, was born in Oldham Edge six years before the outbreak of the First World War when Edward VII was on the throne.

The hard-grafter started work at Windsor Mill aged 12 and went into service as a maid in Lees when the mill closed. May met her husband Lawrence at a dance in Springhead Congregational Church where he was playing saxophone and clarinet with a band.

The couple married at St Thomas’s Leesfield, in 1935 and Lawrence, who died in 1968, served abroad during the Second World War with the Royal Engineers.

The couple set up a plumbing business in Springhead and had two sons, Lawrence (73) and Warner who died in 2002, aged 60. The family now has four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

May’s service will take place at St Anne’s, Lydgate, tomorrow at 11am followed by interment at the church.