Woman, 105, says secret to long life is Marmite for breakfast and sherry before bed
A widow who celebrated her 105th birthday says the secret to a long life is her daily routine of Marmite on toast for breakfast - and two glasses of sherry before bed.
Sprightly Joan Prince has lived through five monarchs, 28 prime ministers and survived two world wars and a global pandemic.
Surrounded by her family while celebrating her birthday, she said the secret to a long life is having Marmite on toast for breakfast and two glasses of sherry in the evening.
Joan said: "My mum used to slather it really thick, you're not supposed to do that.
"It's not done me any harm though.
"I have two glasses of sherry in the evening which helps me sleep, and they’re the only things I do regularly.
"I've never smoked either. And I've danced a lot."
Joan got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Granville Price, when she was 17 but was told by her mum Eliza that she couldn't get married until she was 21.
The couple then married on Boxing Day in 1939 and moved into their home in the Stocksbridge area of Sheffield, South Yorks,. where she still lives now.
The great-great-grandmother-of-seven adores ballroom but said Granville 'couldn't dance a step.'
However, that didn't stop her from dancing until she was 96.
Joan said: "I used to dance, garden, paint, draw, embroider, knit… now my eyesight is gone, I can’t do that anymore.
"I used to sing a bit too, but I don't anymore."
Joan worked at her parent’s fish and chip shop , Mill’s, from the age of 14, where she cut up the newspaper.
She was then 'promoted to behind the counter' at age 15.
Joan said: "The pubs were closed at 10 and we stayed open until 11, so everyone would come down - it used to be so busy.
"It cost three pence for the fish and the chips."
When the Second World War started, she ran a grocers’ out of what is now her living room but had to close it in the 1970s when supermarkets started opening.
Joan said: "It wasn't easy, because everything was rationed. We started on the back foot.
"But I loved it, and only shut it down when they built the shops nearby, you know the supermarkets?
"Everybody went mad then, and I lost my trade completely.
"I closed it in the 70s and took over the fish shop."
Although the mum-of-three was surrounded by her family, she said she wishes her friends were still alive to celebrate her birthday.
Joan said: "I wish a lot of my friends were still around so they could come and enjoy it.
"I love being with people, and it’s not a house that enjoys loneliness.
"I have never thought about going anywhere else.
"Even if I won a million pounds, I wouldn't move from my home."
Sprightly Joan Prince has lived through five monarchs, 28 prime ministers and survived two world wars and a global pandemic.
Surrounded by her family while celebrating her birthday, she said the secret to a long life is having Marmite on toast for breakfast and two glasses of sherry in the evening.
Joan said: "My mum used to slather it really thick, you're not supposed to do that.
"It's not done me any harm though.
"I have two glasses of sherry in the evening which helps me sleep, and they’re the only things I do regularly.
"I've never smoked either. And I've danced a lot."
Joan got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Granville Price, when she was 17 but was told by her mum Eliza that she couldn't get married until she was 21.
The couple then married on Boxing Day in 1939 and moved into their home in the Stocksbridge area of Sheffield, South Yorks,. where she still lives now.
The great-great-grandmother-of-seven adores ballroom but said Granville 'couldn't dance a step.'
However, that didn't stop her from dancing until she was 96.
Joan said: "I used to dance, garden, paint, draw, embroider, knit… now my eyesight is gone, I can’t do that anymore.
"I used to sing a bit too, but I don't anymore."
Joan worked at her parent’s fish and chip shop , Mill’s, from the age of 14, where she cut up the newspaper.
She was then 'promoted to behind the counter' at age 15.
Joan said: "The pubs were closed at 10 and we stayed open until 11, so everyone would come down - it used to be so busy.
"It cost three pence for the fish and the chips."
When the Second World War started, she ran a grocers’ out of what is now her living room but had to close it in the 1970s when supermarkets started opening.
Joan said: "It wasn't easy, because everything was rationed. We started on the back foot.
"But I loved it, and only shut it down when they built the shops nearby, you know the supermarkets?
"Everybody went mad then, and I lost my trade completely.
"I closed it in the 70s and took over the fish shop."
Although the mum-of-three was surrounded by her family, she said she wishes her friends were still alive to celebrate her birthday.
Joan said: "I wish a lot of my friends were still around so they could come and enjoy it.
"I love being with people, and it’s not a house that enjoys loneliness.
"I have never thought about going anywhere else.
"Even if I won a million pounds, I wouldn't move from my home."
Transcript
00:00 Can you tell me what you did when you left school?
00:04 Well I left school at 14 and I went into my mum and dad's fish and chip shop
00:10 just cutting paper because they used to wrap fish and chips in newspaper in those days
00:17 at £2.60 a week and then I was promoted to behind the counter when I was 15
00:25 and I earned five shillings a week.
00:28 And how long were you doing that for?
00:31 I was doing that until I was at least 20 and then I got married at 21.
00:39 And where did you get married?
00:41 At St Anne's Catholic Church.
00:45 Is that the one that you still go to?
00:47 Yes, after all these years.
00:51 And do you go every single week?
00:53 Yes, it's nearly, very few of the congregations that I know now, they've all gone.
00:59 Yes, oh bless you.
01:02 And your wedding, tell me about your wedding, you got married just before?
01:09 Well the war had just started and everything was rationed so the people that lived around me
01:16 all put together and all baked something, baked a cake and things like that
01:21 and we had a tea in the, it used to be a tea room at the back of the old co-op,
01:28 you wouldn't know it now, and they all brought something and we had a lovely wedding tea
01:36 and I don't know wherever they got the food from because everything was rationed.
01:41 We had a lovely, really lovely meal and there was quite a lot of people there
01:45 and this auntie of mine that could play the piano, she played the piano for dancing
01:51 and we had a really, really lovely evening and that was it.
01:55 That's amazing, thank you. And then I think last question for here would be,
02:00 you told me a little bit about what you think your secret might be and you said about the Marmite.
02:07 Well my secret, the only thing I know that I do regularly and I've done since my husband died
02:14 45 years ago, is toast the Marmite and I have it every morning without fail, unless I'm on holiday.
02:23 That's as much as I can tell you about that and a glass of sherry in the evening, sometimes two,
02:30 and that's been a regular thing for quite a few years.
02:34 Oh and I forgot, a glass of hell's salt, a tiny little, I've got a little glass,
02:39 a little whisky top glass and half a teaspoon full of Andrew's liver salts and that's it.