CENTENARIAN Nancy Patterson knows everything there is to know about Cockenzie & Port Seton. . . and no wonder, she has lived there all her life.

Nancy, who turned 100 last Thursday, has never moved out of the community where she was born and raised.

And she said she had always been happy there as it is where she went to school, met her husband, and brought up her family.

Nancy said: “I was born in Gardener’s Close, Cockenzie, across from the Thorntree Inn, and remained here through my life.

“Of course there were holidays, but this is where I have always had my home.

“It’s where I met my husband – at the dancing, and where the children grew up. So it is where I will stay.” Friends and family held a party at the John Bellany Day Centre on Nancy’s birthday and she received a telegram from the Queen, delivered by hand by Lord-Lieutenant Deputy Marlene Love.

Guests were also entertained by piper Lauchlan Mack, 14, from Cockenzie and Port Seton Pipe Band,.

She also received congratulations from Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, and East Lothian Council.

Nancy, who worked for a bank manager as a nanny to his two children after leaving school, met husband Robert, a painter and decorator to trade, at a local dance hall.

They married in 1935 and, although Robert was a “Tranent boy”, they set up their marital home in Cockenzie & Port Seton.

They had seven daughters, sadly losing two when they were very young.

Robert passed away shortly before his 65th birthday.

Nancy, who has 13 grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren and who lives close to where she was born, puts her long life down to her determination to stay independent.

She said: “I stay in sheltered housing but I do my own cleaning, washing and ironing and cook for myself. I still get out and about and have always been determined to live an independent life. That is what has kept me going so long.” The Patterson family held their own get-together with their amazing matriarch at the weekend, when five generations reunited to celebrate the landmark birthday.

And the Courier and East Lothian Housing Association helped mark Nancy’s special birthday by showing her our archive papers from the year she was born.

Nancy remarked: “I couldn’t believe the cost of corsets way back then!”