WIDOW Helen Monnelly was delighted to receive a telegram from the Queen and a blessing from the Pope when she celebrated her100th birthday on Saturday.

Her Haresfinch home was awash with flowers, presents and cards and 'open house' to countless well-wishers, while among guests at a family party was Father Matthew O'Callaghan, who serenaded Helen as she dropped off to sleep.

The parish priest had organised another celebration for her this Friday, but sadly, it will now be Mrs Monnelly's funeral because she passed peacefully away just a few hours after the party ended.

Helen's husband Pat died in1969, and she leaves sons Eddy, John, Brian and Tom, daughters Margaret and Marie, 13 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Said Marie: "Mum recited the Rosary nightly, and often said she was tired and was ready for God to take her. She wanted to fall into a deep sleep and wake up in Heaven. However the family are happy that she lived to enjoy her centenary."

Born in Edinburgh, Mrs Monnelly was a classmate of Blessed Margaret Sinclair, and worked in service for the Duke of Norfolk before meeting her husband-to-be, and they emigrated to Canada and married in Hamilton in 1929.

Eddy and John were born there but, with employment prospects poor, Pat and Helen returned home and settled in Woodlands Road - which is still the family home - and attended Lowe House Church before St Peter and Paul's was built in 1938.

A Funeral Mass will be offered there tomorrow (Friday, August 6) at 12.30pm, after which Mrs Monnelly will be laid to rest with her husband at St Helens Cemetery.

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