100th birthday for a special lady

100th birthday for a special lady

8 January 2014

DOWNPATRICK’S newest centenarian believes she has a simple and accessible recipe for long life - walking beside the Quoile River and a daily bowl of porridge.

As Mrs. Mary Norris celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends yesterday afternoon in Lecale Lodge Care Home, she said she was convinced these simple life pleasures had helped her reach her landmark birthday.

Mrs. Norris, who has lived in Downpatrick since relocating from Portadown over 70 years ago so her husband Robert could take a nursing post at the Downshire Hospital, is equally adamant that a teetotal lifestyle, no smoking and a plain diet have also played a part in her long life.

Indeed, her daughter Iris jokes that her mother refuses to try any food that was not readily available in the 1930s.

“She has the most simple plain diet of potatoes and turnip and cabbage or maybe a bowl of broth, but nothing like garlic or chilli or pasta,” Iris says. “She is also a very strong character and has continued to be strong despite her age.”

Mrs. Norris’s strength of character is evident through her sharp wit as she jokes with friends: “The world has gone mad, the weather has gone mad, everything has gone mad.

“There are computers everywhere but I don’t need them. I’m happy to have access to my phone.”

Mrs. Norris says she has had little interest in news and current affairs throughout her life, preferring to focus her energies on sport with an avid interest in cricket, darts, snooker and football.

“I love sport and watch as much as I can,” she says. “I watched many matches at Downpatrick Cricket Club, which was not far from my house.”

She says she seldom reflects on her earlier life although she does recall how her husband had to walk miles into town to find a midwife in the middle of the night when she went into labour in the early 1940s. She remembers that he returned on a bicycle with the midwife in time for the delivery of Iris.

Mrs. Norris’s second daughter, Helen, died in 1968. She has two grandsons, Simon and Jonathan Hill, who travelled from England to attend yesterday’s party.