Megan has some surprising advice for reaching 100!
Centenarian Megan Cozens puts down her long life to lots of singing and dancing, owning a cat and supping the occasional glass of ginger beer.
Two days before her 100th birthday <on Sept 22>, she celebrated the landmark day with a big party at Brooke House Care Home, in Brooke, surrounded by her family, fellow residents and staff.
An appeal on Facebook and to other Kingsley Healthcare care homes meant she had more than 100 birthday cards to open.
Mrs Cozens was the youngest of three girls born to Cissy Allerton, the wife of Lowestoft trawlerman Stanley Allerton.
The family lived in a terrace house in London Road, Pakefield and her mother worked as a beatster, repairing fishing nets, as well as running the home while her husband was away at sea.
Mrs Cozens has fond memories of playing with her friends Betty and Pauline on Pakefield beach and visiting the Wrentham shop of her Aunt Freda and Uncle Alf with her older sisters Mary and Trixie during the school holidays.
She attended the Central School in Pakefield and her fondest memories are of singing in the school choir; one year the choir was invited to sing at a BBC broadcast at the Royal Albert Hall.
However, those halcyon days came to end when the Second World War broke out and the family was forced to move to Kessingland to escape the bombing.
She said: “The town was bombed heavily. I can remember the day the Luftwaffe bombed a restaurant in Lowestoft High Street, and several people were killed.”
At the height of the war, Mrs Cozens recalls spending some time in Penzance, Cornwall, living with another aunt.
When she finished school, she was called up and worked as a receptionist at Lowestoft Hospital.
After the war, she worked at Wrentham Engineering as a clerk; her only trip abroad came in the early 1960s when she travelled to Germany to attend the wedding of her friend’s brother.
She married Jack Cozens in 1964 and their only child, Paul, was born a year later.
Mrs Cozens, who then became a stay-at-home mother, continued to sing in choirs and loved to go to English and Scottish dances; she was a keen reader and skilled dressmaker who loved to knit.
Her husband, a Norwich City fan, worked as a print compositor at Page Brothers printers, in Norwich.
The couple lived in Hellesdon, near Norwich, all their married life and enjoyed family holidays around the UK.
Her husband passed away in 2018 and Mrs Cozens moved to Brooke House last year.
Her son lives in Stoke Holy Cross with his wife Lee and Megan’s grandson Ted.
