South Cambs care home resident turns 100
Mary has travelled across the country during her life, learning pottery, lace-making, and more.
Pictured above: Mary with family at her birthday celebration. (Credit: CHS Group).
A care home resident is celebrating with family after turning 100 years old.
Mary Longbottom celebrated the milestone on Monday, a day after her birthday on March 14, with fellow residents and staff at Moorlands Court, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire.
Mary’s family, including her granddaughter who has not seen her since her 99th birthday, were able to visit too.
She received more 200 cards from village residents as well as children at King James Academy in Royston, Little Hands Nursery in Melbourn, and Roman Way First School in Royston.
Mary was born in 1921 in Selby,Yorkshire, when George V was still the king, to parents Nellie and Robbie Fallas.
At the age of 14, Mary left school and started work as a weaver near Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, lodging with family and friends until her parents moved there.
At the outbreak of World War II, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, a women’s branch of the army, as a teleprinter operator.
In 1943, she married Arthur Longbottom, who was serving in the Coldstream Guards, a British Army regiment, and their daughter Margaret was born a year later.
After the war, Arthur joined the prison service and the family moved to Wakefield, Yorkshire, where Mary and Arthur had two more children, Barry in 1947 and Keith in 1951.
While bringing up the family, Mary attended evening classes to learn pottery-making, which she enjoyed, and she was able to pass on these skills when the family moved to the Isle of Wight and Mary volunteered at a special needs school.
The family moved back to Yorkshire in 1973 and it was there that Mary learned to make bobbin lace. Once again, Mary passed her skills on when they moved to Norfolk to be near family as while there, she started a lace group.
When visiting her son Keith and family in Canada she worked with another group of women, some of whom are still lace-making and passing the skills on.
Arthur died in 1986, and so as her son Barry was about to leave the RAF for a job in Melbourn, it was decided that she should share a house in Harston with himself and his wife, Shirley.
Here, Mary made friends at a quilting group and became interested in gardening. During these years she visited her daughter and family on the Isle of Wight a few times every year and also managed to visit Keith and family a few times.
By 2017, Mary began to suffer with dementia and so she moved into a flat at Moorlands Court, owned by CHS Group.
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