Good food and work key to life

A WOMAN who has died at the grand age of 104 attributed her longevity to good food and hard work, her son said this week.

Rose Goldsmith, who spent most of her married life in Wrentham West End, passed away in hospital following a fall.

Mrs Goldsmith was born in 1905 in Walthamstow, London, and moved to Beccles as a young girl because her mother disliked the city.

She worked at Clowes print works in Beccles and went on to meet and marry her husband Frank Goldsmith, who worked as a chauffeur.

Mr Goldsmith fought in Burma leaving his wife to bring up three sons on her own during the war.

Mrs Goldsmith's son Maurice on Wednesday recalled how his mother grew vegetables, kept chickens and worked in the fields for a local farmer to earn extra money.

She also picked apples and beans and for extra meat would skin wild rabbits and pigeons shot by her eldest son Brian.

Maurice Goldsmith said: “Rose managed to feed and look after us all that time and never owed anyone a penny. Although she could have had credit from local tradesmen she refused. Before she died she said her long life was due to good food and hard work.”

In 1954 Mrs Goldsmith lost her son Rupert in an accident at work. He was 16-years-old. Her eldest son Brian died aged 48.

After Brian's death Mr and Mrs Goldsmith moved to Oulton Broad. Her husband died in 1989 but Mrs Goldsmith continued to live independently up until a month before her death.

Mrs Goldsmith passed away on December 15 following a fall in which she broke her hip. The funeral service took place at Sotterley Chapel, where other family members are buried, on December 29.

She leaves four grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Maurice Goldsmith and his wife Marcie, who live at Mutford, described the late Mrs Goldsmith as a “small woman with a big heart and very tough.”