Suffolk born and bred, Joan Kersey has recently celebrated reaching the age of 108-years-old.
Born in Ipswich on February 28, 1915, she still lives in the house her dad, Henry Ernest Kersey, built in Tattingstone in the early 1920s. He also built the bungalow next door.
In fact, she has lived there her entire life and, until relatively recently, without any help.
Celebrating her birthday, she said: "I don't feel any different at 108.
"It feels good though, I have lived a wonderful and quite exciting life."
She grew up in Ipswich and attended Ipswich High School from the age of four until she left at the age of 18 after completing Sixth Form. Among her recollections is sharing a horse cab with a French mistress to school.
She loved her time at school where she was a very good student, excelling in nature study, maths and sport with fond memories of playing hockey.
She then moved to London where she attended Miss Ransomes College for girls for two years.
This is where she met lifelong friends, Monica, Delia and Yvonne.
In 1939, during the Second World War, she helped out at her father's opticians business in Ipswich and Diss.
She remembers Doodlebugs (planes that had no pilot and acted as a bomb) flying overhead during that time.
She worked as a secretary most her life and enjoyed being involved in the local community.
She attends church in the village where she was a churchwarden and, remembers when she was younger, how her family used to host village and summer parties on their large garden.
As a member of the church, she was chosen to receive the Royal Maundy money from Queen Elizabeth at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
Her parents passed away in 1948 when they were in their 70s, which is when Joan started travelling around the world.
She has visited many countries with New Zealand and Thailand particularly memorable destinations.
A trip to Norway when she travelled to the very north of the country remains a highlight and she remembers her visit creating quite a stir. Norway wasn't a common tourism destination 50 years ago.
She has continued travel since her 90s enjoying many holidays to Brittany, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Wight among other destinations.
To this day, she remains fit and alert, exercising daily until very recently.
As part of her birthday celebrations, she had a party with 16 of her closest friends.
She was also invited back to Ipswich High School, now at Woolverstone Hall, to share memories of her school days with members of the senior leadership team and head students from both the Prep and Senior School.
The school presented a special cake to Joan, which featured the school's old emblem with a picture of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.
On returning to her former school which she attended between 1920 and 1933 when it was an all-girl school, Joan said: "It was lovely to go back.
"I didn't recognise anyone from my time there though."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here