West Sussex care home resident celebrates ‘wonderful’ 105th birthday with family and friends

Edna Ada Louisa Hathaway, who was born on May 14, 1920, in south east London, marked the occasion with family, friends and staff at Westall House Residential Care Home in Horsted Keynes.

She called the afternoon ‘wonderful’, saying: “I was spoilt by my family, friends and everyone at Westall. It was a great day and I had three cakes made by pearl my daughter in law, Molly the deputy manager at Westall and rose who is the chef at Westall. We had a brilliant afternoon with all the staff and residents celebrating my birthday.”

During her working life Edna had a job in an office using a Comptometer, which was an early mechanical version of a calculator that was used until the 1970s. She said she lived in Kent after the Second World War and married Charles Dennis, who was one of the clerks she worked with. The couple divorced after 15 years.

Edna said she has two (now adult) children, Andrew and Richard, as well as two grandsons, Adam and Richard, and several great grandchildren.

Before moving to Westall House in 2016, she lived in Eastbourne for 34 years.

When asked how it feels to have reached 105 years old, Edna responded: “Rotten! No, only joking. It’s quite an achievement and I was glad I could celebrate it with my loved ones.”

When asked what she thinks might be the key to living a long life, she said: “Doing what I can to help others and behaving myself. And over the past couple of years a Baileys in my coffee.”