105 up for home loving Alice (From Warrington Guardian)

Croft woman Alice Johnson celebrates 105th birthday

4:50pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in News

WRITING a novel while living on her own and looking after a 17-year-old cat would probably be a tough task for most 104-year-olds.

But great great great grandma Alice Johnson, who celebrates her 105th birthday today, Thursday, takes it all in her stride.

The mother-of-three, who has been living at Kingsmead Court, Croft for the past 18 years with her daughter Hazel on the same floor, said she does not want any presents or a party for the landmark occasion but has agreed to an afternoon tea.

With 62 descendants – 58 of whom are still alive – matriarch Alice believes the secret is in her genes.

She said: “One day comes and then another one follows it.

“Long living is in my genes.

“My father was 96 when he died but he would have lived to 100 if he hadn’t been knocked off his bike.”

Alice, who was married to lift electrician Harold for 40 years before he died aged 64, worked as a shop assistant for large Manchester firm Pauldings before she got married.

She used to make all of the family’s clothes until her sewing machine broke last year and was still going shopping on her mobility scooter until a couple of year ago.

Over the past 10 to 15 years she has been writing a book about a girl’s life called Polly and is now hoping her handwritten notes will be typed up and published in three volumes.

Alice said: “There’s not much you haven’t gone through by my age.”

During her eventful life, Alice’s family looked after her cousin’s little girl before her family set sail on the Titanic, tried to start a union for shopworkers and survived the Second World War in Wythenshawe with her husband who could not fight as he was classed as a semi-invalid.

She added: “They dropped a lot of bombs but they never hit anything apart from a farmer’s cow.”