A GREAT-GRANDMOTHER was remembered by her family as a “loving, very strong character” following her death just one day after her 100th birthday.

Elizabeth Dorrian, known as Elsie, spent her entire life in Clydebank, where she and husband Frank raised three children.

She grew up with six sisters and two brothers, spending time in Linnvale and Whitecrook. She latterly resided at Hill View Care Home, in Dalmuir.

For her birthday, the staff at Hill View organised for a performer to sing through her window, due to social distancing, and all the staff sang too.

A keen dancer, Elsie met her husband Frank at Spiers dance hall where she often went with her sisters. When she reminisced about meeting Frank, Elsie told her children he was playing the trumpet with his band The Sylvians and instantly caught her eye.

The pair married after “love at first sight” and went on to have children, Frank, Carolyn and James.

James told the Post: “My mum was a great cook and a strong character. Even when money was tight she knew how to make things stretch and take care of the family.

“She was famous in the family for her ham hock soup. We have all tried to make it now and some of us even took Scottish ham hock back to England to make it just the way mum did, but no one can do it like her.

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“Dad went to Australia in the 1950s, like lots of families, on the £10 ticket. We were supposed to join him for a better life when he got settled with work, but when it came to it, mum couldn’t leave Clydebank and so he returned home.”

Elsie made a number of friends and enjoyed working in Birrell’s Chocolate Factory, in Anniesland, Singers Sewing Factory, and Kippen Dairy before retiring from her last job in Frank Downie’s elderly care home.

Throughout their long life together, Frank carried on playing and teaching various instruments. The couple also enjoyed visiting the bingo together until he sadly died in 1999.

James told the Post his mum had always been one to care for others. He said: “She always had visitors and she was partial to a good cup of tea. Whenever we visited, we were met with a cuppa and a large box of chocolate biscuits and cakes.

“Mum always believed tea was too wet to have without having something to eat with it. I am sure Tunnock’s has now noticed a reduction in their sales of chocolate mallows.”

Speaking about her time in care, James said: “She didn’t like to trouble anyone and was always so grateful for the staff that cared for her. They went over and above to make her feel at home in Hill View.”

Elsie leaves behind her two sons and daughter, 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Her family would like to thank the staff who cared for Elsie at Hill View Care Home and the great memories and care they gave her.