The family of a Harold Hill centenarian gathered round her for a big party celebration recently.
Mary Anne White, known as May, celebrated with her family and proudly posed with her telegram from Her Majesty the Queen.
May, originally from Poplar, moved to Harold Hill around 50 years ago.
She worked for an electrical goods rental company in the 1960s, and her hobbies included reading and cooking.
Her grandson John Cook said: “Every Christmas she would always make the best Christmas pudding I have ever tasted.
“She hasn’t told anyone a secret of living such a long life, but she does love to eat olives, which I understand helps people in the Meditteranean live so long.”
May married Albert Cook in 1934 and he passed away in 1961. She married her second husband Alfred White in 1966, he died seven years ago.
She has four grandchildren, Paul, 41, Spencer, 39, John, 34, and James, 33, as well as one great-grandchild – Hermione, 3.
She had two sons, Peter who passed away in 1987 and John, who died in 1966, aged 18.
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