No drink, no smoking and having just the one true love are the keys to a long life, according to a Belfast pensioner who celebrated her 107th birthday today.
Maria McQuillan, who was 12 when the first World War broke out, puts her longevity down to good living.
“I don’t drink, I’ve never smoked in my life and only ever had one man,” she said at a special birthday party.
With her husband William having died more than 40 years ago, the independent former factory worker still lives on her own in a small house in the south of the city. She visits the City Way Day Centre in Sandy Row three times a week for her lunch and today friends and family gathered there to mark the big day.
“I feel good I‘ve been allowed to stay so long and I thank God my mind’s still clear,” she said.
“I‘ve just lived from day to day, one day passes and the next comes and before you know it it’s your birthday. That’s the way I’ve lived. Yesterday I was 106 and now I’m a 107.”
The mother of one son, has three grandchildren and four great grandchildren, and was born near the Shore Road in north Belfast before moving to the Donegall Road area as a child.
There she spent most of her life, working in the Adams weaving factory from the age of 14 until she was 60.
During that time she became great friends with famous Belfast singer Ruby Murray, who was brought up on the street next to hers.
The pensioner’s son William helped his mother blow out the candles on her cake. He said she doesn’t like talking about the bad times she lived through - like the two world wars and the Troubles - but she always enjoys sharing the good memories.
PA