After sheltering under a table as German bombers flew over during World War II, Grovedale’s Marion Salmon was unfazed with spending her 100th birthday in lockdown.
She was 21 when a plane dropped a bomb in her street in home town Kidderminster, en route to nearby industrial city Birmingham, she said.
“[It] set fire to a hedge rose and knocked the corner off their house,” remembered Mrs Salmon, who celebrated a century of life on Wednesday.
She helped the English fight back by driving trucks in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as the men flew sorties over Germany.
“The only interesting thing in my life was my four years in the WAAF!” she laughed.
“Oh! That and getting married!”
She met her husband at the base where she was stationed after he returned from service in Africa.
The couple moved to Australia in 1960, with their three sons, for her husband to work at a Geelong carpet factory.
“He would have been 100 last July,” she said.
She now has six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, and lives independently at Ingenia Gardens Grovedale.
Initially Mrs Salmon was unsure if she should “bother” celebrating her 100th birthday amid COVID-19 restrictions.
But flowers and a letter from Queen Elizabeth II had changed the spritely centenarian’s mind by Tuesday.
“Two big bunches already!” she giggled.
On Wednesday son Andrew, who has been delivering her groceries, visited while residents surprised her by singing Happy Birthday from their doorways.
“I can’t believe it. How lovely!” she said.
“When you reach my age people always ask you what your secret is. For me, it’s my mother’s genes and not letting things get me down!”
