FAMILY and relatives have celebrated the 105th birthday of a care home resident.
Mary Parsons marked the occasion at Gotton Manor, in Cheddon Fitzpaine, recently.
Mary was born in the village of Binegar, in the Mendip Hills, six months before the end of the First World War.
Her parents moved to Bristol with her and her three older brothers a couple of years later.
After school, she worked as a sales assistant in a shoe shop in the city, where she met her future husband, Merson.
Following the birth of the couple's only child, Liz (Whiteley), they moved to Oldland Common, on the outskirts of Bristol.
Mary then worked part time in a clothes shop in Keynsham.
Mary and Merson retired to a bungalow in Lower Langford, near Weston-super-Mare, in North Somerset.
She remained there following his death in the 1990s after more than 50 years of marriage and continued to live independently until two years ago.
Following a fall, Mary spent a time in a home in Axbridge, until it closed, when she moved to Gotton Manor last August.
Mary, who used to be an avid reader and enjoyed caravanning in her younger days, now spends her time watching television and listening to the radio.
As well as a daughter, she has two grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Her daughter Liz said: "She was quite amazing how she managed to still live independently into her 100s.
"She was still cooking me a fish lunch when I visited twice a week and we'd go shopping together.
"She's still got all her marbles, although she lost a lot of mobility after her fall.
"She's quite relaxed about being 105 and was very pleased to get a card from the King and Queen to go with the one she received on her 100th birthday from the previous Queen."
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