FRESH vegetables, walking and cycling are the secrets to a long life, according to Kenilworth-born Ethel Brinda Goode who has turned 100.
Ethel – known as Brin – celebrated her centenary at a Rugby care home with family and friends.
Born in Mill End, with the maiden name Bayliss, Brin was one of five children.
She was named Ethel after her mother but goes by Brin, short for Brinda.
Granddaughter Amanda Lane said: “The story is that possibly it’s Scottish, or they couldn’t read the writing in the birth certificate and it should have been Brenda.”
She went into service from the age of 14 to 17, and then worked at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Coventry where she traveled by bus every day from Kenilworth.
Brin met Leslie Goode and married him at St George’s Church in Coventry on September 27 1941. They had one child, Pauline, who will soon be 75.
She then worked at Dunlop for many years until she retired.
Her marriage lasted 41 years until Leslie’s death in 1983.
She stayed in the same house for over 50 years until she moved to Rugby to be nearer to her family in 2010 at the age of 90, where she lived independently until she was 98.
Amanda gave Brin two great-grandsons, Adam, 22 and Oliver, 20 – who is 80 years and one day younger than his great-grandmother.
“She was very proud to have two great grandsons,” Amanda said.
She added: “Her secret, she always said, was fresh vegetables from her father’s allotment and walking or cycling to places.
“She loved ballroom dancing and went a couple of times a week. She used to be a member of the town’s women’s guild, loved flowers and flower arranging.
“She also was a fantastic knitter and loved craft making. A few years ago she was diagnosed with macular degeneration which made it more difficult – but she still carried on doing these activities into her 90s.”
