A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER-OF-FOUR still singing in the bath celebrated turning 100 with more than 60 members of her family.
But Dorothy Morley, who lives at St Dominic's Residential Home in Kelvedon, said she felt "no different" upon reaching the milestone.
"It was just another birthday for me," she said. "But the celebrations were lovely."
Born in 1914 as the third of four children in Bermondsey, she first worked at a doctor's surgery.
At 17, she gave up her job to care for her ill mother.
Once she had recovered, Dorothy, known as Dorrie, was told to take a holiday and visit her eldest sister Rose in Dagenham.
It was here she attended a dance at Ilford Palais and met her future husband, John.
He asked to walk her the mile and a half home and after initially saying it was too far, she ditched her lift and walked with him. They married in Dagenham in 1940, while John was serving with a Spitfire squadron.
Due to wartime restraints, Dorothy made her own wedding dress, the dresses of the bridesmaids, her mother's, and all the bouquets.
"The dresses all fitted, so they did the job," said Dorothy.
She was evacuated during the war to Buckinghamshire, where she had her daughter Trixie in 1942, and had son Trevor in 1949.
Before moving into St Dominic's two and a half years ago, Dorothy spent nearly 40 years of her life living in East Hanningfield, where she was at one time president of the district's Women's Institute branch.
Last year, when pupils from Honywood School in Coggeshall visited the home, she made her first video phone call to Trevor in Spain and joked she thought an iPad "was something you put on your eyes".
In July she was one of five people, about to turn, or who already turned, 100, invited to an afternoon tea hosted by the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell.
The mother-of-two, grandmother-of-seven and great-grandmother-of-four, said: "I've lived a very normal life. I don't think I did anything special.
"Take life as it comes and don't worry.
"Just live your life from day to day and enjoy yourself; that's what I recommend."
