A CENTENARIAN with joie de vivre celebrated her third party in three days with family and friends.

Great-grandmother Ruth Moon ordered her party goers to laugh and enjoy themselves and led three cheers for the staff at her care home.

The birthday party held at Somerleigh Court in Dorchester on Monday, marked the third event in a row for Mrs Moon.

It followed a family lunch at Kingston Maurward College on Mrs Moon’s actual birthday on Saturday and a family party in North Dorset on Sunday.

Mother-of-four Mrs Moon, 100, praised staff and her fellow residents who had presented her with a special cake and a gift voucher.

She said: “It’s lovely to be here like this but I want it to be an afternoon for all of us.

“This is because a lot of you will get to the same age and I want to share everything.

“I’ve got such a lot of lovely flowers from all sorts of people, I shall give some to the hospital because I’ve been really spoilt.

“Thank you so much and enjoy yourselves, I want to hear lots of laughter.” Mum-of-four Mrs Moon said the secret to her good health was being self-sufficient.

She said she brought herself up as a child in Broadstairs, Kent, following the early death of her Methodist minister father.

She said: “I’ve always just got on with everything.

“I’ve never felt shy with people because I haven’t learnt to be sophisticated, I still haven’t.

“I’m fitter than I’ve been for ages.

“My son David and I regularly walk five miles.”

Her son David Moon, 68, of Dorchester, added: “She walks me off my feet quite often.

“She was a professional mum and used to teach private music lessons and run a choir.

“She had a difficult early life but she made the best of it.

“She’s got great energy, the term I hear more than anything in her letters is ‘joie de vivre’, she does seem to have a natural bounce.”

Among the guests at her party was the youngest of her 12 great-grandchildren, six-week-old Edward Castle, and Thomas Hardye student Alex Lascelles who entertained everyone with piano tunes.

Karen Jeanes, activities organiser at Somerleigh Court, said: “Ruth is amazing, she really is.

“She never grumbles and when we have tea parties she sings and sits on the table, she’s a delightful lady.

“She comes to our keep fit classes every week, I sit and watch her and think ‘I wish I could do that.”