In just over a week, Lilian Berry will turn 100.
She's lived an eventful life. There have been happy times, sad times and tough times.
The Salford pensioner has a wicked sense of humour and, at 99, pulls no punches.
“You’re asking me awkward questions here," she tells our our reporter as he delves into her past.
Lilian becomes a centenarian on February 9.
We caught up with her at Amadeus Residential Home as she prepares for the big day.
Lilian’s family originally hailed from London's East End.
They moved to Salford when her father got a job as a pipe fitter for Brown and Polson’s at Trafford Park.
The last surviving member of eight siblings, she was born Lilian Paisey in a two-up two-down terrace house in Eccles.
She was one of two children in the family to be blessed with bright, red hair.
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Lilian left school at 14 before getting her first job at Turner and Newall.
She retains vivid memories of the war; days the like of which she believes only the toughest can survive.
“Half the kids today wouldn’t be able to go what I lived through," she said.
“When the war was on, people would walk into Trafford Park to avoid the bombs.
“When you came out of there, you didn’t expect your house to still be standing.
“There was a man who lived on our street and refused to come with us one day. We came back and he had been killed.
“It was hard times. We didn’t have everything easy.”
A brick for a water bottle, an iron attached to the wall, a clothes wringer for a washing machine and fighting family members for the Sunday night bath.
Lilian has many stories to tell; stories that paint a picture of a Salford unrecognisable today.
Her son Dennis said: “I remember talking to a guy and he said to me ‘I used to live in abject poverty when I was a kid because I shared a two-up two-down with my mum and dad’.
“I had to explain to him how many lived in my house when I was a kid.
“My mum was born in Lawrence Street and I was born in the same house.
“There was me, my mum and my dad had the front bedroom.
“My uncle George and aunt Alma had the front room, and my gran lived in the back bedroom.”
Lilian's late husband George served in the Royal Australian Navy. When he was away, there was very little contact between the two.
“Me and my friends used to go the picture house," she said.
"We had to get in the queue for the cheap seats.
“Me and George sort of got together there and he went into the navy when the war was on.”
George and Lilian got married on November 23, 1940.
“He was in the Australian navy for three years," Dennis said.
“She didn't heard properly from him for three years.
“One day, she got a letter from a South African church that said he sold his soul to the lord, but he had no money and had gone in the soup kitchen.”
Lilian and George had two children - Dennis and younger sister Norma.
She sadly lost her beloved George to cancer back in 1978. He was buried on the day of their wedding anniversary.
Lilian later became well-known in Eccles for her decorating and sowing skills.
“I was showing this chap that I wanted some repairs to my windows," she said.
“He came to my house and saw a sewing machine and asked me ‘oh, do you sew?’ and I said 'just a little'.
“Next time he came to do my repairs, he’d brought two pairs of trousers for me to sew.
“I haven’t been trained for it, I just like doing these things.
“It just came to me and I like doing it and I like helping people."
After a serious fall at home, which saw her break both her legs, Lilian needed round-the-clock care.
She moved into Amadeus care home two-years-ago.
"I like to keep myself to myself, so I don’t do much but eat a lot and watch television."
