Dinas Powys community stalwart Rosa celebrates 100th birthday (From Penarth Times)

Dinas Powys community stalwart Rosa celebrates 100th birthday

8:50am Friday 22nd June 2012 in News

A STALWART of the Dinas Powys community this week celebrated her 100th birthday!

Rosa Keeling was born in Birmingham on June 19, 1912, and moved to the village with her husband Bill and their five children in 1957.

She celebrated her 100th birthday on Tuesday with a small family gathering at The Manor House in St Hilary, where she has been a resident for just three weeks.

Until the end of May, the grandmother of nine and great-grandmother-of-four remained living at home in Dinas Powys with Bill - her husband of 71 years - who is in hospital after a fall.

When the family arrived in the village in 1957 they quickly became well known, Rosa cutting a distinctive figure, going everywhere on her bike or at fast-paced walk, often laden with shopping.

An avid gardener, she kept her family supplied with fresh produce from the large plot at Glen Acres, St Andrew's Road, and was an active member of the WI, holding various offices over the years.

She loved dancing, and even when she and Bill could no longer cope with ballroom, she kept fit with line-dancing and yoga, well into her nineties.

Her daughter Maggie Harris said: "Always putting others first, she noticed and quietly befriended many lonely 'old ladies' over the years, visiting them unfailingly, well into her nineties.

"She lost her father at the age of 10, lived through the Depression, the bombing raids and many other difficulties of the war, and in 1980, her youngest child Rosemary died at the age of 26.

"She dealt with adversity in her own quiet way, never complaining. And always faithful to her strong belief in our obligations to the environment; she was a true 'green', long before the term was coined.

"She is known in the village for her steadfast refusal to accept lifts, whatever the weather, preferring to walk everywhere!" added Maggie.

"In short she is a survivor, and the whole family is delighted to see her so content and well cared-for after a lifetime of caring for others."