May’s the life and soul of the party at 101

CHEERS: May Holland

IT WAS party time for one sprightly centenarian who celebrated her 101st birthday yesterday.

Young-at-heart May Holland enjoyed a party with family and friends at Park House Residential Home, Queens Road.

Born May Bollington in 1908, she lived in Lennox Street with sisters Gertrude and Dora and a brother.

Her mother died in childbirth and after her father was killed in he First World War, she was brought up by her uncle and aunt in Estate Street.

She worked in mills around Oldham, but remembers it to be a job that she detested.

She said: “I hated working in the mills, I used to go to bed crying about it. I disliked it so much they moved me out of the card room and put me in winding which was cleaner.”

She fell in love with her neighbour Ernest and the couple wed in 1936. Ernest died 28 years ago.

She has one son Kenneth, a former bank manager, and one grand-daughter, Louise.

The family moved to Garden Suburbs, where she lived until she moved into Park House Residential Home in February.

Mrs Holland, a talented amateur artist, painted well into her 80s. When asked what the secret to long life was, teetotaller Mrs Holland joked dancing every Saturday and Sunday was key.

She said: “Really, there is no secret to long life, it is just the luck of the draw.”

Park House manager Barbara Connolly said: “She is the life and soul of the party, a very happy lady with a wicked sense of humour and very positive.”