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Maria prepares to celebrate her
110th birthday
By Jonathan Lessware, the Scotsman
October 27, 2003
Maria
Pettigrew says the odd drop of sherry in the evening has helped her live
so long.
Picture: Sean Bell
SCOTLAND
’S
oldest woman, who has lived in three centuries and through both world
wars, today celebrates her 110th birthday.
Maria
Pettigrew was born in
Edinburgh
on
27
October 1893
,
two years before radio was invented.
The
pensioner, who clearly remembers the day Queen
Victoria
died, puts her old age down to the "plain" Scottish diet, not
smoking and the odd drop of sherry in the evenings.
Ms
Pettigrew, who has outlived all three of her children, has spent the past
few weeks preparing her outfit for a party at the city’s
Corstorphine
Hospital
.
The
former milkmaid has been widowed twice, but said she still wants to look
good for her birthday and has bought new shoes especially for the party.
Among
her many friends and family expected at the party is former Edinburgh Lord
Provost Eric Milligan.
Speaking
from the hospital, where she has been a permanent resident for the past
five years, she said: "My nurse has taken me to buy shoes and
hopefully a new wedding ring because this one is getting a bit
slack."
Maria
was born one of four children in Liberton, Edinburgh, to policeman Andrew
Scougall and mother Helen before telephones, televisions and washing
machines had been invented.
She
left school at 14 to become a milkmaid and servant on a dairy farm where
she met the two loves of her life. At 19 she married ploughman William
McCardle, leaving her friend and secret admirer Tom Pettigrew heartbroken.
He left for
Australia
to set up a new home.
After
the First World War William, with whom she had three children, died in the
Spanish Flu epidemic.
Thirteen
years later the widow was reunited with Tom when he returned from
Melbourne
,
and the pair were married for 42 years.
She
said: "I’ve only had two boyfriends and they were both decent men.
Two happy marriages - what more could a woman ask for?
"My
Tom never had another girlfriend in his life. He waited all that time for
me. I don’t know why everybody is in such a hurry these days.
"Working
on the farm back then was hard. But I was young and kept healthy with
fresh farm food - and I love porridge."
Maria,
who still keeps good health despite failing eyesight, recalls various
international events vividly.
She
said: "We were sent home from school the day Queen
Victoria
died. We were all very sad.
"I
remember the night the Armistice was declared - it was crisp and clear and
I could hear the ships on the
Forth
blowing their horns, and the trains going over the railway bridge.
"The
most extraordinary thing I ever saw was a motor- car when I was walking
along the road between Currie and Balerno. I had never seen one before. I
was so shocked I fell in a ditch."
Her
last daughter, Molly, died just two weeks ago at the age of 84, but Maria
still has six grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren whom she sees
regularly.
She
spends her time listening to the radio, watching television, talking to
people and keeping up to date with the news.
She
lived in her own home, doing her own cooking and housework, until she was
105.
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