A FORMER wartime nurse has celebrated turning 101 with a visit from her daughter.

Grace Emery, who is a resident at Redwalls Nursing Home in Sandiway, was only able to celebrate her 100th birthday with her family via Facetime last year because of the first coronavirus lockdown.

However, following a lifting of restrictions, Grace was absolutely thrilled to be able to share reaching the new milestone with daughter Pauline.

Grace marked her big day with balloons, flowers, cards, two cakes and, of course, champagne.

Redwalls activities coordinator Jodie Solaiman said: "Grace has a very big family and loads of friends.

"She was delighted to see her daughter Pauline and we managed to FaceTime a total of 29 people, including all the great grandkids."

During the Second World War, Grace worked under the constant threat of air raids in hospital wards with scant equipment and boarded up windows.

So, it is no surprise that she managed to keep a smile on her face throughout the coronavirus lockdown, proving an inspiration to staff and fellow residents at the Kingsley Healthcare run home, in Weaverham Road.

The eldest of eight children, Grace was born on April 4 1920, and grew up in the Warwickshire countryside before she was sent to a boarding school in Weston-super-mare at the age of ten.

From there, she entered nursing school in Birmingham and was one of the first intakes in the then new Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Jodie added: "All of her training, both general and midwifery, took place during wartime.

"She lived and worked with constant air raids, boarded up windows in the wards and lack of rubber gloves and needles.

"In theatres, gloves were often not used for operations due to the shortages."

Grace married Bill in 1948 and gave birth to twins Pauline and Graham in 1950, while her youngest son John was born four years later.

Bill, who worked as an Her Majesty’s Inspector of technical colleges, and Grace lived in Birkenhead, Solihull, Southport and Bristol before moving back to Warwickshire.

Following Bill’s death in 2001, Grace moved up to Cheshire to be near Pauline and John.

Before moving into Redwalls she lived at Pauline’s house in Kingswood, near Frodsham.

Jodie went on to say: "Grace, who has three children, eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, has always been guided by her very strong Christian faith and has been a wonderful example to friends and family over the years."