Eva reaches milestone mark

Eva Slater (below, left) recently celebrated her 100th birthday.

It has been quite a rollercoaster of a ride for Eva who has experienced so much in a century of life — and not all of it happy.

Eva was born in the year the Great War began in 1914 in the westend of Glasgow and lived in a how-demolished part of Cromwell Street.

She attended both Woodside primary and secondary schools and learned short hand at the city’s Sproul college.

Around this time she met and began ‘courting’ a lad called Ronnie and, in 1938, they got married when Eva was 24.

Eva’s grandson, Gavin, told The Extra: “My gran has many recollections about the time she was courting my granddad.

“They include school and local dance halls and going to the pictures at Charing Cross.

“And definitely in the minority in those days was having access to a car: my granddad would take my gran on runs at the weekend in his dad’s car.

“Authority was not always given for use of the car: but this was before the days of insurance and even having to sit a driving test.”

As was the way of things back then, Ronnie worked while Eva gave up her job to run the household.

The couple then bought a house in Orchard Park Avenue where they lived until 1991.

Eva and Ronnie became parents to a daughter, Yvonne, who was born in 1943.

Eva has very vivid memories, still, of life during the war and the food rationing that became an everyday part of life.

Gavin told The Extra: “She recalls the food rationing and the long queues at the shops.

“She told me on several occassions in those days you would be scared to pass a queue.”

Sadly, for Eva, her immediate family have since died: Ronnie passed away a few years ago while daughter Yvonne died seven years past.

But with grandsons Gavin and Colin and five great-grandchildren, Eva is far from lonely.

As Gavin summed it up: “My gran has said on many occassions she has never had any grumps and groans with life and says she always remained happy; even with having a lot less than we have today.

“She always has been and will remain a super gran to us and remains a valued member of the family.”