A GOOD upbringing is the secret to the long life of a Kidderminster woman who has reached 100 years of age.

Flo Butt credits her late parents Elizabeth and Albert Woodhouse for getting her to her milestone, on Wednesday last week, by bringing her up “intheproper way”.

Mrs Butt, who moved to Kidderminster from Cleeton St Mary, Shropshire, when she was 14, was the only girl among six brothers and was broughtupona farm. 

She worked as a “servant” carrying out household chores for families in Kidderminster before being called up to do “war work” during the Second WorldWar.

“We were called servants in those days,” Mrs Butt recalled. “We had to wear an apron and a little cap.

“I had to get up in the morning at 7am, make a cup of tea and take itupstairs to the bedroom.

Then I had to lay the table for breakfast, make the breakfast, clear the breakfast, wash up and carry on with the days work. I really enjoyed it. My mum and dad taught me how todo things.”

She added the last family she worked for, in Birmingham Road, were “very upset” when she got called up to do war work, making cases for bullets at a carpet factory in Mill Street.

“They tried to keep me,” Mrs Butt said. “Everyone that was able had to go and do war work.”

Mrs Butt then went on to work as a collector for a shop inComberton Hill.

She said: “I have always been quite happy. I had a good mother and father who looked after me before I left home. I had a good life.”

She added that although she did not have any children of her own she had “some lovely nieces and nephews” who visited her regularly. “I think that’s what’s kept me going for the lastfew years,” she added.

Mrs Butt celebrated her milestone at Holy Innocents Church and asked for donations instead of gifts, raising £175 for the church’s community hall.