Written by Simon Wellington

My mother Connie Wellington is one hundred on Wednesday, May 17th. She still does the crossword every day, keeping her brain active.

She was mother to five boys and has led a very interesting life. She pointed out to us that she has now seen three coronations and five monarchs. George V was on the throne when she was born. Edward VIII reigned for a short while but had no coronation. First coronation was George VI, who was the last viceroy of India and in 1953 she travelled by train to Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in London. She watched as much coverage of our new King Charles’ coronation as she could amongst her dozings off.

Connie grew up in Midsomer Norton, Somerset and moved to Seaton Devon in 1985.

Her father, Arthur Speed, fought through the first World War as a sergeant major and her mother, Annie, was a lay Methodist preacher. Connie helped her father with his signwriting, gold leafing and painting pictorial pub signs. She wanted to become a teacher and was accepted by Southlands College in Wimbledon. Unfortunately the second World War was taking place so the college made its temporary home in Weston Super Mare. One of her first jobs was teaching at the little school near Priddy Green on the Mendips. Her best friend colleague at the school was Michael Evis’s mother, host of the Glastonbury Festival.

Connie married our father, Gordon, whom she met at a dance in Compton Martin, in the Chew Valley. Gordon and Connie expanded her father’s decorating and signwriting business in Midsomer Norton called F. Speed and Sons. Gordon organised the workers and Connie did much of the paperwork, taught part time and brought up five boys!

She was a keen sports woman and was captain of Somerset Ladies hockey team. Connie loved tennis and still watches Wimbledon every year, and carried on playing tennis even when she moved to Seaton. Connie would also ferry us five boys and friends around to football matches.

All five boys were very good footballers and all round sportsmen and Connie would go into goal for football practice with us.

She had a nice low slung soft top vintage Mercedes sports car in gold, which she brought with her. The chassis broke and she had to replace it. She was in her eighties and my brother Timothy took her to the car showrooms to choose a sensible car that she could easily get in and out of. He made the mistake of taking her to the Mercedes showroom first, where she saw the newest version of her old sports car. It was a bright shiny blue and when she sat in it, she found a button that would retract the roof automatically. She had to buy it!

Connie carried on driving it until her nineties and reverted to a mobility scooter. Even then, the salesman had to sprint down the pavement after her as she tried it out. She went so fast up onto the pavement that it lurched along on two wheels. It was the funniest sight seeing the poor chap running down the road after her, waving his arms and shouting to her to slow down.

The eldest son, Timothy worked on world cartography and travelled with Chris Patten to oversee the handing over of Hong Kong to the Chinese. Jeremy came along three years later. He was a Professor at Sheffield University and many reading this will have used his books for their Physics syllabus. I am the middle one, born in 1956 about eight years after Jeremy. I played football, then taught and then followed the sign writing and art family tradition. Jonathan, born three years after me, works for B&NES Council and my father told everyone, “he never missed a penalty”. When mum was pregnant with David, the fifth son, my eldest brother Timothy was twenty years old! David followed another family trade and is a building site manager.

Her father had the first car in Midsomer Norton and a crowd of people came out to see if it could traverse the steep hill called Silver Street coming out of Midsomer Norton. Mum and her two sisters had to jump out of the car and help push it up the hill.

Mum has fought Covid twice and the last time was just a few weeks ago. She was taken by ambulance to Exeter Hospital during the night. My wife and I visited her later that morning. We were told that covid had taken a real grip on her and she also had pneumonia. We left her in the hospital in a delirious state with an oxygen mask across her face and were told not to be hopeful.

Within a couple of days, she was sat up and although she still had a mask on, she wanted to be taken home. Ten days later she was back home.

She said her motivation was not to miss out on her 100th birthday and the card from the King.