Emily DennisA woman who has died at the age of 104 attributed her longevity to good food and hard work, her son said yesterday .Rose Goldsmith, who spent most of her married life in Wrentham West End, near Beccles, passed away in hospital following a fall.Emily Dennis

Rose Goldsmith, who has died at the age of 104, put her longevity down to good food and hard work.

Mrs Goldsmith spent most of her married life in the tiny north

Suffolk community of Wrentham West End.

She was born in 1905 in Walthamstow, east London, and moved to Beccles as a girl because her mother disliked the city.

She worked at the William Clowes printing works in the town and went on to meet and marry Frank Goldsmith, who worked as a chauffeur.

He fought in Burma during the second world war, leaving his

wife to bring up three sons on her own.

And Mrs Goldsmith's son Maurice recalled how his mother grew vegetables, kept chickens and worked in the fields for a farmer to earn extra

money.

She also picked apples and beans and for extra meat would skin wild rabbits and pigeons

shot by her eldest son, Brian.

Maurice said: "Rose managed to feed and look after us all that time and never owed anyone a penny.

"Although she could have had credit from local tradesmen, she refused. Before she died she said her long life was due to good food and hard

work."

In 1954, Mrs Goldsmith lost her son Rupert in an accident at work; he was 16 years

old.

Brian died when he was 48.

After his death, Mr and Mrs Goldsmith moved to Oulton Broad.

Her husband died in 1989, but Mrs Goldsmith continued to live independently until a month before her death.

She died after a fall in which she broke her hip.

The funeral service took place at Sotterley Chapel, where other family members are buried.

She also leaves four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Maurice and his wife Marcie, who live at Mutford, described her as a "small woman with a big heart - and very tough."

Emily Dennis