11:31am Saturday 18th February 2006
By Mark Killiner
A WOMAN who celebrated her 100th birthday has attributed her longevity to a yoga routine she began in the 1960s.
Florence Rose Thomas, of Walton House, Chingford Road, Chingford, became a centenarian last week and marked the event with a party for her family.
Mrs Thomas, who has five daughters, the eldest of whom is now 78, has lived in Waltham Forest all her life, moving between Leytonstone, Walthamstow and Chingford.
In her early years she worked bottling beer at Tollemache's Brewery in St James Street, Walthamstow, and according to her granddaughter Michelle Bayne-Jardine, built up a strong pair of shoulders while she was doing it.
Afterwards she worked as a cleaner for a family in Walthamstow and later in one of the Lyons Corner Houses.
When she married Alfred Thomas in 1927 she gave up paid work and dedicated herself to family life, bringing up her daughters and later on spending every other day visiting her granddaughters when they lived in Enfield.
Mrs Bayne-Jardine said: "My grandmother has always been a family woman. When I was ten we went to live with her and we had a wonderful time. She had a cracking sense of humour and she's still very sharp-witted.
"She taught me how to knit and we used to sit there for hours talking and putting the world to rights."
Alf died in 1980 but while the couple were together they lived a very social life, often going to the pub and talking to a host of friends or travelling up to London to explore and see the sights.
Her granddaughter remembers Mrs Thomas taking up her yoga routine.
She said: "She was way ahead of her time. She was keen on alternative treatments for ailments such as herbs and did her daily dozen, a name she gave to her yoga exercises. Not many people were doing that at the time."
As well as her five daughters, Mrs Thomas now has five grandaughters and one great granddaughter.
She was joined for the party in Walton House by friends and family and one of her daughters, Barbara Matthews, flew in from Maine in the USA for the celebrations.
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