“Mind your own business”

1:43pm Wednesday 2nd January 2002

FIVE generations of one family celebrated as a great great grandmother- who enjoys 20 cigarettes a day reached her 101st birthday.

Ex-landlady Ellen Nelly' Redfern, of Mays Hill Road, Shortlands, has smoked all her life, and enjoys a "drop of Scotch" every evening.

Her favourite dish is pie, mash and gravy and she believes "proper food" and Scotch whisky is the key to long life.

A former landlady at the Horse and Groom in Sidcup, she had seven children, of which six are still alive, 28 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

Son Stan Redfern, 61, of Crown Close, Chelsfield, said: "She is a wonderful lady and independent. She still cooks her own food and is very bright."

Nelly said: "The only way you get to my age is by minding your own business."