WHEN a York pensioner was asked how she wanted to celebrate her 100th birthday today, she said she would like two things: a card from the Queen and the coronavirus vaccine.

Olive Southwell, of Woodthorpe, wanted the jab "so things could go back to normal," said her niece Carole Henson, with whom Olive lives.

She said Olive was set to receive the card today but hadn’t yet been invited to go for a vaccination.

She said the birthday celebrations had had to be postponed until next year because of the pandemic but Olive was getting used to video calling, and her family and friends had got together with her on a Zoom call on Sunday to celebrate her 100 years.

“She had a beautiful 100th birthday cake from Fred’s bakery in Albemarle Road,” she said.

Carole said her aunt was born in 1920 in Killinghall, Harrogate, with her father working as a head waiter at a hotel in the spa town. “As he moved to further his career, Olive lived in numerous pubs and hotels, and spent a short time in York where she attended Scarcroft school.”

They then moved to the White Horse Hotel in Bramham, where Olive continued her schooling and had many fond memories.

“She remembers there was a beck which ran under the Great North Road and it used to be her job to wade under the bridge and call the ducks in to be fed and to sleep in one of the garage outhouses, where they laid their eggs, which the family ate.”

She said that during the war, Olive worked at the Northern Command Regimental Pay Office in Bootham, now the Churchill Hotel, and continued to live in various hotels and pubs including The Coach and Horses in Micklegate, The Queen’s Hotel in Micklegate and finally the Windmill Hotel in Blossom Street.

“After the war, Olive worked at Terry’s factory in the pay office until she retired. She had four brothers, Edward, Albert, David and Peter, and has outlived them all. She cared for her elderly parents until her father died in 1963 and her mother died in 1975. The following year, 1976, she married Herbert Southwell; Herbert died in 1998.”