A Perthshire gran celebrated her 100th birthday with three cakes – and an invitation to party guests to join her again when she’s 101.
Hilda Stewart was the centre of attention at Louisebrae care home in Perth on Tuesday.
The mum-of-five arrived in Methven as a war bride, and threw herself into the life of the village.
Her cakes were baked by students at UHI Perth – formerly Perth College – where she worked in the stores for many years.
And among all the gifts and good wishes, she most wanted to express gratitude for her long and happy life.
“I would like to thank all the Scottish people who I have met in my time here,” she told The Courier.
“They have been very kind and have always made me feel very welcome.”
Dodging bombs and dreaming of silk stockings
London-born Hilda was her parents’ “lucky baby”. Her dad landed a job as an engineer at Battersea Power Station on the day she arrived in 1924.
With four sisters and a brother, a choirboy at Westminster Abbey, the family were hardworking but happy.
“I had the best dad in the world,” she said.
“Life was different then. We made our own clothes, cut our own hair, we had to do everything for ourselves.”
Hilda was just a teenager when war broke out. She stayed in London all through the blitz, working as a bus conductress.
“I was called up,” she said.
“The men were away in the war, so the women did their jobs until they came home.”
It was an exhilarating and often frightening time.
“We had to stop the buses when the bombs fell,” Hilda recalled.
“There were lots of Americans in London. They always had chocolates and silk stockings.”
In the end though, it was a Scotsman who won her heart.
Love opened a new chapter in Perthshire
Douglas Stewart was a petty officer in the Navy, who was billeted in London during the war.
Love struck in the most unlikely of places when he and a friend took shelter from a thunderstorm in a cafe under Putney Bridge at the same time as Hilda and her friend.
The pals became a firm foursome from that day on. And for Hilda and Douglas friendship quickly turned to love and marriage.
Eldest daughter Susan was just six months-old when Hilda arrived in Methven as a young mum soon after the war.
It meant adjusting to a different way of life, joining the other local women at the berries and the tatties.
But Hilda got stuck in and she and Douglas went on to raise two daughters and three sons in the village.
She stayed active after she retired at 65. She and her friend Kate McIntosh were regulars at the bingo in Dundee, driving through three times a week to play.
Douglas died in 1988. But Hilda continued to live at home in Methven until two years ago, when she moved to Louisebrae care home in Perth.
At 100, she is still one of the most sprightly residents in the Tulloch home.
She is a dab hand on her iPad and iPhone, says daughter Susan Morris.
And she loves to keep up with the lives of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, some of whom were there for her party.
“I think a lot of her strength comes from what she went through during the war,” said Susan.
“She just always got on with things.”
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