Chedburgh’s Norah prepares for birthday party fit for a centenarian

Mother-of-two, grandmother-of-four and great-grandmother-of-eight Norah Merrett is preparing to turn 100 on Tuesday.

The soon-to-be-centenarian lived alone until the age of 98 in the same Stansfield bungalow she bought with her late husband, Fred, in around 1971.

She now shares her time living between her two daughters’ homes in Chedburgh and St Albans and enjoys a game of Scrabble ‘almost every night’.

“She’s got quite a wicked sense of humour, I have to say, she does enjoy a joke and a laugh,” said her eldest daughter, Margaret Rickard.

She added: “We‘re planning a big party and she keeps saying ‘I don’t know what all this fuss is about, I’m sure you’re doing it because you want to do it really’, but we know that she’ll just love it.”

Around 30 family members are expected to attend the celebration, including Norah’s granddaughter who has travelled from Malaysia.

Margaret said: “You can’t let an occasion like that go by, can you?”

Of her ‘wonderful’ mum’s secret to longevity, she said: “She would probably say it’s her glass of sherry every day.”

Norah regularly enjoys whist drives with the Suffolk West Federation of Women’s Institutes and afternoons with Stansfield’s lunch club.