Real lives: Defying odds at 20, Jenny goes on to hit 100

A WOMAN whose family were told to prepare themselves for her death when she was 20 has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Jenny Stewart, a resident of Brae Court in Linlithgow, was the centre of attention at an international celebration held on December 15, which included a slap-up meal at the Park Bistro.

Relatives travelled from all over the world to be with the centenarian, with granddaughter Fiona, 40, coming in from Australia and niece Heather Woodbury bringing her family all the way from Canada. Two of Jenny’s younger sisters Peggy Palmer, 98, and Minnie Palmer, 87, also attended.

Jenny was born in Elderslie, Renfrewshire in 1912, and was almost lost in 1932 when a serious bout of pneumonia, before the invention of the antibiotics which now save so many lives, led doctors to warn her family that she was not expected to survive.

However, Jenny recovered, trained in First Aid and went on to work in Erskine Military Hospital during the Second World War in a voluntary aid detachment.

It was during the war that she met John Stewart, whom she married in 1947 after he returned from serving in the Royal Artillery in Burma. Their daughter Anne was born in 1948.

Jenny is grandmother to Karen, 43, who lives in Linlithgow, Fiona, 40, now resident in Australia and Stewart, 37. The former health worker also has two great-grandchildren, Sandy, 12, who goes to Linlithgow Academy and Jamie, , who attends Linlithgow Primary.

Before her retirement, Jenny worked in hospitals in Paisley and Elderslie. She decided to move to Brae Court when she was 95 to be closer to her family.

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