A CARE home resident celebrated her 100th birthday with an afternoon tea party “fit for the Queen” last month.

Florence Elizabeth Pude, who lives at Copper Beeches in Andover, enjoyed a party filled with balloons, presents and cake on her birthday, even getting a new outfit and hairdo to mark the occasion.

The Coronation Street lover also received a birthday card from the Queen, and the care home staff took care of the preparations ahead of the special day.

Copper Beeches assistant unit manager Derrie Burton said: “She sat at the head of the table, she really enjoyed it and was loving the attention.

“We went to the lounge and watched her open all her presents, she got lots of deliveries from family abroad. Our laundry assistant Lucy made the cake. We tried to do most of it ourselves because we are like a family.

“She spent the whole rest of the next day in bed, I think we knackered her out. I asked her if she was getting up and she said ‘not today dear, I’m just going to sit here’.”

Mrs Pude, who celebrated the milestone birthday on 16 January, grew up in a children’s home in Sidcup, Kent with her brother which she reminisced as a “perfect” place which she credited “more than anything” in her life.

It was at that home she met her husband John, and they got married when Flo was 21-years-old on 13 February 1939.

Before the couple’s wedding, Florence worked in a men’s shirt factory for seven years.

She said: “I married him as quick as I could. He married me first in a lovely little church in Sidcup.

“We were boy and girl, absolutely together, we looked after each other.”

Florence and John had two sons, John and Terry and the family has since extended to include one grandson and two great-grandchildren.

The couple lived in Pilgrim’s Way where Florence moved to be with her mother who lived in a home for the blind in the area.

Mrs Pude continued to live at Pilgrim’s Way until she moved into Copper Beeches in June 2014.

Ms Burton added: “She’s a happy little soul, she’s a genuinely nice lady, she really likes helping others. She’s really lovely.””