Gladys celebrated her 106th birthday on Christmas Day and marked the occasion with a little burst of Abba.  A regular at the Sevenoaks, Kent, tea parties, she loves the Swedish group and will occasionally serenade her fellow guests with a few bars of, ‘Thank You For The Music.’ 

“I love Abba and I love being with people. I come alive on those occasions,” she said. “And the tea parties are the perfect place to enjoy those things. I go for the company. The food is always good but it’s being with others, having a chat, that’s what really matters.” 

Great grandmother Gladys was born in Islington, north London, during the First World War - the eldest of eleven children. She and her youngest sister, Christine, are the only survivors. 

“We had a hard life, but we were always happy,” said twice-married Gladys.  “I left school at 13 and worked in a shop before going into service – doing chores for wealthy London families, like cooking, washing, ironing, and scrubbing stone steps at 6am. Later I became a lab assistant for the drugs company, Burroughs Wellcome, which I really enjoyed. 

“During the Second World War we moved to south London and would watch the German doodlebugs (flying bombs) go across the sky with a huge stream of flame pouring out of the back. When that light went out, we knew we had to run for the bomb shelter because it was going to come down and explode.” 

Gladys’s family eventually moved to Borough Green, Kent and she married at 22, having two sons, Michael, now 80 and Christopher, 74. Later she married Navy Petty Officer, John Banks. Their marriage lasted for 40 years. 

“I have no idea how I’ve managed to live so long,” she said. “I just wake up every day and say to myself, ‘I’m still here’ then get on with things. 

“I shower, have breakfast, make my bed, do some washing and then maybe, if I’m not going out, watch TV. I don’t have any carers because I can look after myself and still get out and about. 

“I go to a lunch club twice a week and the Re-engage tea parties, which are absolutely wonderful. Every month I have an all over massage, which helps keep me supple and I get my nails painted a different colour. At the moment they’re red. 

“Times have changed dramatically but I still enjoy the company of others. I’m a very sociable person.”