CHAMPAGNE was flowing at a St Albans residential care home last Thursday when Brenda Chant celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends.

She had already been out to lunch at Darcy’s in Hatfield Road before the party went back to Verulam House where celebrations continued with some champagne and cake.

Brenda had lived in Charmouth Court, St Albans, until she was 97 when it was felt she would be better off being cared for full time.

Born in New Barnet, she and her late husband David, director of a necktie company in London, moved to St Albans in 1937 where they bought one of the new houses then being built along Sandpit Lane which was then little more than fields.

She worked as a secretary until her children arrived and then devoted herself to being a full-time mother to Alison, Elizabeth and Roland.

Both she and her husband were keen members of the congregation of St Peter’s Church in St Albans where Brenda was involved with the Mother’s Union and David was a church warden.

She also loved walking. Alison said: “We had many wonderful holidays touring Scotland, Ireland and the Lake District which was one of her favourites. She never had a passport because she never wanted to go abroad.”

But she has travelled the world vicariously through her children who have all been globetrotters and whose journeys she plotted on a map.

Brenda was also a keen cyclist and has a passion for moths and butterflies which has meant a couple of visits to Butterfly World in Chiswell Green since it opened.

Her two grandsons, Robin and Jake, were both at her birthday celebrations where the chef at Verulam House had baked a special cake.

Alison described Brenda as, “a loving, supportive mother” who enjoyed life and her birthday was no exception.