A woman in Wales has just celebrated her 100th birthday with her sister, who is 108 years old. Together, they are thought to be the oldest sisters in Wales, with a combined age of 208.
Lil Thomas, 100, and Amy Winifred Hawkin, 108, have received six birthday cards from the Queen between them.
Thomas received her first card from HRH when she turned 100 while Hawkin received one on the same birthday but has continued to receive one every year since her 105th birthday.
Thomas, who is from Newport, was Wales’ first female bus conductor during World War Two. She took the role on in 1939 after making a name for herself as a performer at Newport’s Empire Theatre, where she sang, danced and played the accordion.
Hawkin, meanwhile, was part of a dance troupe.
“Conductresses were needed during the war because of the black out and there were a lot of Irish boys working here who didn’t know where they were going,” Thomas told the BBC.
“We had a small lamp on our front which was the only light inside the bus. It was so dark that you had to call out every stop, whether you could see it or not,” she continued.
“But we used to have a laugh on the last bus, singing songs with the boys on their way home from the pub.”
The next milestone celebrated by the sister duo will be in January when Hawkin turns 109, at which point she will receive her sixth letter from the Queen.
“I got a stack of them,” she told the BBC, “a boxful!”
When asked if she had any advice for longevity, Thomas replied: “Never lose your sense of humour. Because if you can’t laugh at yourself, you’ll never get through the rest of life.”
