A CULLOMPTON woman is set to celebrate her 100th birthday this weekend.

Evelyn Retter will reached the magnificent milestone on Saturday, December 12.

She will be celebrating the achievement with a lunch with her close family at Woodbury Salterton, which will be followed by a family get together afterwards.

This will include Emma Retter, 25, one of Evelyn’s five children who lives in London and contacted the Star to tell us of Evelyn’s accomplishment.

Emma said her granny “is still active and Independent and lives alone at Cullompton and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Like many of her generation she is very modest and she would rather look after her family than be looked after.

Evelyn was from a large family of eight children, three of whom are still alive and well.

She lived as a farmer’s wife with her husband Archie Retter until he passed away in 1995.

Both of them came from a long line of farming families in East Devon, and they were married at Plymtree Church in 1946.

She has two surviving sons, David and Christopher, and five grandchildren; Emma, Jason, Simon Jonathan and Ashley.

She also has four great-grandchildren, with more on the way.

Emma added that her granny “still has a very sharp mind and still insists on playing cards at Whist Drives, where she often wins small prizes.”

And the secret of long life? Evelyn says she can’t explain it, but she does say she never drank very much and rarely smoked.