Hard work is key to long life says Meg on her 108th birthday

Sprightly Meg Melvin spent years working as a cleaner for a doctor in Glasgow's West End before she retired at the age of 92.

The widow also worked in a sweet shop before becoming the manageress of a cleaning company.

Meg's life has been long and eventful and her 108th birthday yesterday was marked with a party with family and friends.

She was greeted with a cake, balloons and cards at her very special celebration.

The great grandmother - ­believed to be Scotland's ­second oldest woman - also enjoyed a cheeky glass of Cointreau to mark the milestone.

She also believes "everything in moderation" is the key to a long happy life.

Meg, who was born in Dundee and brought up in ­Govanhill, "never thinks about her age".

And the only concession she has made for her age is cutting her twice weekly bingo ­sessions down to one.

Her son Donald, a former electrician at the Herald and Times Group, says she is still alert, doesn't look her age and enjoys socialising.

Meg, who lives in Knightswood with a full-time carer, has three children, eight grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

In her lifetime she has seen five monarchs, 20 prime ministers and she was eight when the First World War broke out in 1914.

She was widowed in 1960 when her husband Willie died and devoted her life to caring for her three children, Donald, Margaret, and Billy. Meg never married again.

Donald, who lives in the city's South Side, said: "If she can do something, she will do it. She's very easy going. She doesn't get stressed."

The only health problem she has suffered from is cataracts in her eyes.

The oldest woman living in Scotland is 110-year-old Italian-born Maria Lazzeri, born on March 15, 1904.

Maria moved to Glasgow's East End in 1924 from Rico di Tresana, near Pisa, in Italy, with her husband Americo and opened a chip shop in ­London Road.

After her retirement, she moved into Millbrae Care Home in Coatbridge.

rebecca.gray@eveningtimes.co.uk