308 not out, the Duracell Sisters: Remarkable trio who keep going on and on...

308 not out, the Duracell Sisters: Remarkable trio who keep going on and on...

www.mangaloretoday.com

UK, Nov 4, 2011: It’s not every woman approaching her century who can claim to have two big sisters to look up to. Yet that is the proud boast of 97-year-old Mary Hunt. She, Hilda Greening, 107, and Jean Underwood, 104, have an astonishing combined age of 308. Each has outlived her husband and between them they have 12 children, 17 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren.

 

Hilda (left) Mary (right) and Jean (sitting) pose for a photo together in 2005 and 1914

 

Many of the extended family were on hand to help Mrs Greening celebrate her 107th birthday a fortnight ago at a nursing home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

Her daughter Elizabeth Sallis, who is 74 and herself a great grandmother of eight, said: ‘We’re not exactly sure how they’ve lived so well for so long – it must be in the genes.

‘They worked as housemaids for years and have all had very interesting lives.

‘Mum is in remarkably good health for 107. She doesn’t take any medication apart from paracetamol for her arthritis. Auntie Mary comes every Monday to see mum and that keeps her ticking over.’

For her birthday, Mrs Greening received a new dress from Mrs Sallis, countless bunches of flowers and a message from the Queen – her eighth.

‘She was chuffed with her card from the Queen this year as she is wearing a different dress in the picture,’ said Mrs Sallis.

The daughters of farm labourer Harry Wasley and his wife Julia, the sisters grew up in a one- bedroom cottage in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, and all left school in their early teens to go into service.

Hilda married her childhood sweetheart Cyril Greening in 1931 and they were together for 45 years up to his death aged 84.

Jean married Arthur Underwood in 1940. The couple worked at stately homes, with Arthur as a groom and Jean as a cleaner, and had two daughters.

Jean is now in a residential home in Charmouth, Dorset, after suffering a stroke. Mary lives in Twyning, Gloucestershire, and had five children with husband William, a gardener.

The sisters’ mother and father lived to 85 and 89 respectively.

Mrs Sallis said that Hilda, Jean and Mary have always been close and have fond memories of working as housemaids.

‘Mum tells us lots of different stories about what it was like then. She worked really, really hard. She went to work as a housemaid after leaving school at 13 and had chilblains from her fingers to her elbows.

‘There were three cottages in a row and they lived in the middle one. When Auntie Jean was a child she didn’t realise they were moving.

‘There were no removal vans and they just had to carry everything round, but it was fine because they had moved into one of the cottages next door.

‘They were absolutely thrilled because it was a two-bedroom house and they had been living in a one-bedroom before.’

Mrs Greening added: ‘We had about 30 bob (£1.50) a week to live off and although that got better as time went on there was never anything left over. But when times were hard we were lucky to have family and friends around us.’

Mrs Greening was ten when the First World War broke out. She said: ‘I used to go to my grandmother’s, which was just around the corner.

‘I asked what the lights were that were shining up at the sky around us.

‘She never told me they were looking for German Zeppelins, because she knew it would scare me.’

Courtesy: Daily Mail