She lived through The Blitz, hid in an underground station and had a plane crash through the roof of her house.
Now, Bridie Taylor, who worked in the office of an aircraft factory and on the till in a supermarket, has just celebrated her 100th birthday.
Bridie lives in her home in Stretford, Manchester, and is cared for by her son Paul.
Her 100th birthday was celebrated on January 10 and her house is full to bursting with cards from well wishers, including one from the Queen and a letter from the President of Ireland.
Originally from Kiltimagh, in County Mayo, Ireland, Bridie was born on January 10, 1922.
She moved to London on October 6, 1943, before heading to Manchester to join her brothers and to work at a supermarket on Seymour Grove in Old Trafford.
Reminiscing about living through the Blitz, Bridie told the Manchester Evening News about surviving her home being bombed.
After a night of dancing, Bridie left the dancehall to find her home had been hit by a plane that had been blasted out of the sky.
She said: “It was very scary, our house got bombed where we rented, but we were out, my friend and I.
“We were out at a dance hall, we come outside and a bomb had dropped.
“It was a flat roof on the house we were in, and they found parts of the plane on the roof where it had got hit.
“A friend went home [to Ireland] because she was scared, every time the air raid siren went off, she’d go under a table. I’d say ‘that won’t save you, the table'."
Bridie says she didn’t mind having to sleep in an underground station during the air raids, as it would be a night of music and camaraderie.
She said: “They were all happy people, if not scared.
“But in comparison to coronavirus, I think we had the better time.
“You could talk to your neighbour, you could go into her house, you know, when they put restrictions on here - you can’t.
“You had to have blackout curtains, but I’d rather have that than the situation now."
She added: “Eventually, it ended and that was fantastic."
Bridie described the ce
“The celebrations were street parties and up the west end of London, you couldn’t move.
“Where I lived, they were a lovely couple and my friend from Ireland came over as well, they sort of adopted us both.
“Him and the next door neighbour made an Anderson shelter, where they dug down.
“You’d get ready for the work the evening before and then slept in the shelter all night.
“Oh, I hated it, I couldn’t sleep."
This attitude of getting on with it, is part of what Bridie believes is the secret to a long life:
Do not upset anybody, be nice to your neighbours and to, quite frankly, ‘get on with it, with what you’ve got.’
She added: “I never thought for a moment I’d reach 100, when my granddaughters put that up there, I kept looking at it and thinking I’m not 100 years old, but I was.”
Bridie has six grandchildren and one great grandchild and for her birthday, she asked for no gifts and instead wanted donations made to Children in Need.
However, one relative adopted a donkey in her name, which she found shocking.
To get the latest email updates from the Manchester Evening News, click here.
