Anna Bliss celebrated her 100th birthday last week.

The mother of businessmen Donald and David Lines is the grandmother of eight and great grandmother of 15 children.

She was born in Kristrup, Denmark on October 31, 1907, the third child of Peter and Andersine Martine Pederson.

"Anna's parents owned their own farm but when Mad Cow Disease hit Denmark in the 1920s her family was particularly hard hit for they lost all their livestock and the farm became unusable," said grandson Grenville Lines. "Her father then earned his living as a livestock broker."

Having completed her training in catering, Miss Pederson was sent to England by her family. There, she met the Rev. A.P. Kirkpatrick, who was to travel to Bermuda to become the Rector of Paget Church. She accompanied him to the island in 1928, serving as his family's cook.

Continued Mr. Lines: "She met her first husband, Edgar Grenville Lines, in Bermuda and they married in 1931. She bore him two sons, Donald P. Lines born on December 23, 1931 and David E. W. Lines born on August 29, 1934. In October 1938 Grenville died, leaving Anna a widow with two young sons to support. Following the death of her husband, she opened a restaurant in Hamilton known as Omar, but with the Depression and the approaching war in Europe, tourism and other business in Bermuda had basically come to a standstill and she was forced to close the restaurant."

Mrs. Lines found employment at The Medical Hall, where she remained until 1939, when war finally broke out.

"She thought that since Denmark was in control of the Nazis she might be interned until the end of the war, particularly when she was asked by Colonel Squire to visit him in his office," her grandson explained.

"When preparing for this meeting she asked her mother-in-law, Hannah Lines, to look after her boys fearing that she might not return. Instead, Colonel Squire, who was sent out to head up the censorship in Bermuda, asked her to be one of the first 12 ¿ for Anna could speak, read and write all the Scandinavian languages and German."

First located at Montpelier in Devonshire, the censors were forced to move to the Hamilton Princess as their numbers grew to the thousands, to handle the vast amounts of mail redirected to the island from Europe and North and South America, Mr. Lines added.

Mrs. Lines worked as a censor until she received a request from the Governor of Bermuda, asking that she run the canning factory, which was then located next to the Botanical Gardens.

"After the war she continued to work for Government as head cashier of HM Bermuda Customs," recalled Mr. Lines. "She retired after completing 33 years of civil service in 1972. She married a second time in July 1952 to Ernest Bliss, a US Naval Officer, and remained married until his death in 1959.

"She has said that she felt her greatest achievement was raising two sons on her own, during a depression and a world war. Both boys qualified as chartered accountants and became successful businessmen in their own right, and each was honoured with an OBE by the Queen for their services to the community."