Victoria and care coordinator Lorraine
Abbeyfield Kent resident, Victoria Middlemiss may have turned 107 today, but she still likes to have a laugh with the staff at Rogers House residential home, where she has lived for almost eight years.
Born on 1st February 1910 in Sudbury, Suffolk to a big family, Victoria Middlemiss was a middle child of 13 siblings. She spent her childhood growing up in Sudbury before moving to the countryside during the war.
“I married my husband when I was 25-years-old, we were too poor to marry any sooner!” Victoria says. “Shortly after, I had our daughter, Doreen, my husband returned to the army and I remained living in the countryside until the war was over, then we moved to London.”
Victoria, who now has a grandchild and two great-grandchildren, has lived at Rogers House in Wigmore since June 2009. After several short stays during the summer holidays, she decided with her daughter that she would live here permanently, if she could have a room on the ground floor, painted green!
Lorraine Laker, care coordinator at Rogers House said: “Victoria has lived with us for almost eight years and we love having her here as she’s such a wonderful lady, we call her our Queen Victoria!”
“She doesn’t like a big fuss so her birthday celebration was low-key, we gave her a present and staff made a wonderful cake and card. When I asked Victoria this morning how she felt, she said ‘on a good day I feel like a teenager!.”
So what’s the secret to a long and healthy life, a glass of whisky every now and then, not smoking? Victoria thinks for a moment and then says, “Oh, I don’t know but I say my prayers every night before I go to bed and when I get up in the morning.”