GOLDEN girl Elizabeth Pearson is living proof that hard graft never did anyone any harm.
For the pensioner, who likes nothing better than doing the housework with her daughter, Pearl Latchford, will celebrate her 100th birthday tomorrow.
Dusting and cleaning fit in perfectly with Elizabeth's credo for a long happy life.
"She is still very active and useful around the house," said Pearl, 61, who has shared her home in Pansy Street South, Accrington, with her mother for more than 20 years.
"She worked really hard all her life, doing all sorts of things, and was always healthy. She never smoked but she still likes a little tipple of Advocaat."
A celebratory meal is planned for family and friends, but only after she receives a very special delivery - a telegram from the Queen.
Elizabeth, who loves to watch Coronation Street, was born in Oswaldtwistle. The eldest of seven, she found herself caring for and bringing up her three sisters and three brothers to help her busy parents.
She spent her early years in Blackburn but moved to Rishton with husband Joseph in her early 20s. The couple had three children, all girls, but two died in childhood.
After beginning her working life as a weaver, Elizabeth spent the war making gas masks, while Joseph, who died in 1956, continued his engineering job at Whitebirk power station.
After the war Elizabeth worked harder than ever as a cleaner for the electricity board and devoted endless hours to the care of her daughter and granddaughter Wendy Latchford, 33, an English teacher who lives in Leyland.
Pearl said: "She helped a lot with bringing Wendy up. She's been wonderful, a really good mum."
