THE eldest of three long-lived sisters is celebrating her 104th birthday.
Great-grandmother Eirwen Roberts celebrated her birthday at Warrendale Cottage residential home, Broughton on Friday.
Her two ‘younger’ sisters are Eluned Ogwen-Griffith, 101, and Carys Thomas, 99.
The sisters are the three surviving siblings of five.
Eirwen’s daughter Janet Roscoe, who lives in Mold, said: “The three of them have lived very long and very fulfilled lives.
“Their secret, they say, is that they always ate good food and were always very busy, they’ve always been active.
“My mother always puts it down to being too busy to think about her age.
“She’s very, very, well, she’s very resilient, very dignified and very determined. I think those three adjectives sum her up.
“We spent the day very happily together, but we’ll probably have more of celebration when the weather is better. Her sisters both live independently in Rhyl, but it’s difficult to drive from there in the snow.”
She said 99-year-old Carys had only just given up driving last year.
Mrs Roberts, whose father was The Rev Thomas Ogwen Griffith, of Carmel Chapel, Rhyl, is the oldest resident at the home.
She was born in Rhyl in 1909. In 1930 she married Robert Owen Roberts, known to friends as ‘Ro’, who managed the gas board for many years in Connah’s Quay.
Mrs Roscoe said her mother had long been an active member of her community, having been president and secretary of the Women’s Institute at Deeside.
She held the same roles with the Inner Wheel Club of Deeside, going on to join the Inner Wheel Club of Rhyl after retiring and she received a golden certificate for 50 years of service to the club, but has now completed more than 60.
She was active with the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WVRS) during the Second World War when living in Lancashire and her long life has also seen her live in Yorkshire, Prestatyn, Connah’s Quay and Rhyl.
Her two granddaughters (Mrs Roscoe’s daughters) both live in America, one in New York and one in Colorado, with two great-grandchildren.
Mrs Roscoe said: “Hopefully they might be coming over in June and we will have a bigger celebration then.”
Catherine Connah, senior carer at the Warrendale Cottage, said: “She is a very popular and very jolly lady.”