Leona Thompson is 100 today.

Her posture is straight and her mind is razor-sharp; she’s only semi-retired from the job she’s held for 51 years.

She still does her own cooking and cleaning.

“I can scarcely believe I’m 100, myself,” she said. “I don’t feel old. I still feel young.

“I like to stay busy. I’ve never been bored; I don’t have any time for that. Sometimes people say they’re coming over to help me cook. I’m usually almost done by the time they get here.”

On Saturday, her longtime employer Sidney Stallard threw her a big party at his home in St George’s.

All her friends and family turned up as did Governor John Rankin and Premier Michael Dunkley.

“Everything was just lovely,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it. Everything was so beautiful. I had a beautiful cake and lots of lovely flowers. I got so many cards I haven’t opened them all yet. It was just wonderful.”

Former members of the Bermuda Regiment Band played her Happy Birthday at the foot of St Peter’s Church steps after Sunday’s service.

She’s celebrating her actual birthday today, with lunch at Wahoo’s Bistro & Patio in St George’s with a group of special friends.

The centenarian has worked for the Stallard family for 51 years and helped to raise their children, Scott and Nancy.

Although she is now mostly retired, she still likes to lend a hand.

“When they’re away, I go in and clean out their refrigerator,” she said. “I like to stay active.”

She has never been one for sitting.

She polishes the silver at St Peter’s Church. She also makes cookies for the church and is there to greet the congregation every Sunday morning.

“I was a tour guide at the church for 16 years,” she said. “I loved doing that.

“Tourists would drop in to see me, year after year.

“Last week when I went to church, a group of visitors gathered around me and sang Happy Birthday.

“Then they wanted to know my favourite hymn. I said Amazing Grace so they sang that. That felt really good.

“I never put my foot on the floor in the morning without saying my prayers. I put myself in the Lord’s hands. He keeps me going. If I have something to do and I feel a little tired I say, ‘Lord help me to do it’, and I go right along. He never forsakes me. If I am down, he lifts me right up.”

Similarly, she tries to lift up others. Every morning she calls her niece, who is blind, to tell her what the weather’s like. She also sends out hundreds of greeting cards.

“It’s one of my hobbies,” she said. “If I know when your birthday is you’ll get a birthday card from me. I think a card is a nice way to show you are thinking about someone.”

When Governor Richard Sharples was assassinated in 1973, she sent a bereavement card to his wife, Pamela.

“She sent back a nice note,” said Mrs Thompson.

In her St George’s neighbourhood, she is affectionately known as “the cookie lady”.

She particularly loves taking her treats to her great-great-nephews, who live nearby.

“When they see me coming, the little boys run inside and yell, ‘Mummy, the cookie lady is here!’,” she said.

She believes clean living is the secret to her longevity. In a century of living, she has never tasted alcohol, smoked or been to a nightclub.

“When I was growing up I went to Sunday school and church,” she said.

She grew up near Tobacco Bay in St George’s, the youngest of five girls.

“My mother, Ida Smith, used to do a lot of work in different places — ironing and cooking,” she said. “When I was a child Bermuda was much quieter. There were horses and carriages, and later, a train.”

Children were also different. When her nieces and nephews were growing up, she loved reading to them or praying with them.

“Today the television is raising the children,” she said.

Before working for the Stallards, she spent 16 years looking after John and Bruce Tucker. She left them in 1964, when they moved from St George’s to Fairylands in Pembroke but remains in close contact with the family.

“The commute was too far for me,” she said. “I didn’t work for a little while and then I went to work for the Stallards.”

Her late husband, Walter Thompson, was a painter and interior decorator. They met when he painted her sister’s house.

She blushed when asked if it was love at first sight.

“He was 13 years older than me,” she said. “I was about 21 when I met him, but I didn’t get married until I was 25. We were married 54 years before he died in 1996.”

They never had any children.

“I wish we had, but it didn’t work out that way,” she said.

Instead they devoted themselves to their hobbies. He collected animal figurines, mostly horses. She grew flowers.

She still grows African violets.

“I used to belong to the Violet Club a long time ago,” she said. “I won first prize ribbons for my flowers.”

She added: “I’ve always been happy. I give thanks to the Lord. I would never have been able to do what I’ve done without his help.”