One of Merseyside’s oldest people celebrating her 110th birthday said the secret to a long and happy life is a cooked breakfast every morning. Mary “Molly” McTegart spoke to the ECHO from her bed at Orrell Grange Nursing Home in Bootle, holding a glass of fizz and surrounded by dozens of cards from members of the local community and the King and Queen.
In between hugs from the care home’s workers and blowing out the candles on her birthday cake with “110” candles, Molly said her secret to life was “a good cooked breakfast with good bacon and sausage every morning” – as well as “a lot of luck and hard work”. She added “saying yes to everything”, including helicopter trips and a holiday to the Arctic past her 90th birthday, kept her young and happy.
Molly was born in Portland Place in Everton on January 4, 1916. One of her earliest memories was being on a train with her dad in Ireland during the civil war of 1922-1923, taking shelter in a tunnel when Irish Volunteers leader and eventual president Eamon de Valera was shot at.
She attended Everton Valley School from the age of five until she received her certificate at 16. Molly recalled singing in a choir at the laying of the foundation stone of the proposed Lutyens Cathedral in June 1933 and walking through the Queensway tunnel before it opened in 1934.
After training at her aunt’s clothes shop, Madame Nelson in Birkenhead, Molly briefly worked as a Vernons girl at the famous Bootle-based football pools company, before opening her own dress shop on Duke Street in St Helens in 1939. She ran the shop until 1953.
When WWII broke out Molly’s three brothers were called up, but she stayed in Liverpool as her mum’s carer. However, she was on fire watch in Duke Street and did canteen work in Liverpool’s city centre.
Molly was in the Philharmonic Hall on May 8, 1945 when renowned conductor Malcolm Sargent stopped the concert to announce the Allies victory over the Nazi-led Axis forces. She recalled how the orchestra played Land of Hope and Glory before the audience spilled out and danced together down Hardman Street.
More recently the music lover was serenaded at the Pier Head by Russell Watson and the English National Opera during the Eurovision celebrations.
After the war Molly married Charles McTegart at St Monica’s Church in Bootle. Together the pair had five children – Mary, Ann, Charles Jnr, Peter and Jane – and lived on Fernhill Road. Molly successfully returned to the fashion trade in the early 1970s when she opened Strand Fashions in Bootle.
In the mid-1970s, Molly moved to Blundellsands and lived on St Anthony’s Road and then the Blundellsands Classic. She said some of her hobbies included travel, walking, golf and bridge, as well as spending time with her big family which includes five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Molly said living in a care home close to where she had lived and raised her family “means a lot to me”. The lifelong Everton fan, who said the city of Liverpool often wrongly got bad press compared to “the other city” down the motorway, proudly added: “I trust the people of Liverpool, I respect the people of Liverpool. And I know they trust and respect me.”
Molly’s birthday today, Sunday, marks the end of three days of celebrations which started on Friday when she was presented with a signed Everton shirt by the club. During her hour with the ECHO, Molly posed for photos with her adoring care home workers and members of her family, sipped from a champagne glass, blew out candles on two cakes and recounted some of her many memories.
But there was still time for the quick-witted former businesswoman to crack a joke or two. When the ECHO asked what it meant to her to be sent so many birthday cards from the local community, she quickly replied: “It’s all good for trade.”