{"id":1117962,"date":"2026-07-29T11:17:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1117962\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:17:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:17:30","slug":"edinburgh-centenarian-reveals-secret-to-a-long-life-as-she-celebrates-105th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1117962\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh centenarian reveals secret to a long life as she celebrates 105th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A centenarian has marked her 105th birthday<\/a> in remarkable style by receiving 105 cards from across the globe.<\/p>\n

Mary Davidson Smith, a resident at Care UK<\/a>\u2019s Murrayside care home<\/a> in Edinburgh<\/a>, expressed having a “wonderful time” reading the well-wishes, which arrived following an appeal by the home. <\/p>\n

Cards travelled from as far afield as Singapore for her July celebration.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith also holds the rare distinction of receiving a card from King Charles<\/a>, having previously received one from the late Queen Elizabeth<\/a>. <\/p>\n

She celebrated her milestone with a “wonderful family day” and enjoyed afternoon tea<\/a> with friends at Murrayside.<\/p>\n

\"MsMs Smith celebrated her milestone with a \u2018wonderful family day\u2019 and enjoyed afternoon tea with friends at Murrayside (PA)<\/p>\n

Born in Korea, Mary lived internationally during her youth, including periods in England, Canada, and the US.<\/p>\n

She later joined the Royal Navy and met her future husband, British Army officer Charles Wynard Davidson Smith, while posted in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

They went on to live in Edinburgh where they raised two sons, Neil and Mark, and Ms Smith now has four grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith has already made plans for her 106th birthday and hopes to celebrate with a \u201cgood strong whisky<\/a>\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Remarking on her birthday cards, she said: \u201cThis is incredible! I\u2019ve never seen so many cards, and they\u2019re all for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her afternoon tea was prepared by the care home\u2019s chef Jose.<\/p>\n

Upon seeing her birthday meal, Ms Smith joked: \u201cI\u2019m glad you didn\u2019t have 105 candles; I don\u2019t have enough breath for that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for her secret to a long and happy life, she said: \u201cI enjoy it \u2013 keep on going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Smith also said she came from a \u201clong line of others that have lived long lives\u201d.<\/p>\n

The care home resident was recently reunited with a special Korean outfit she wore as a young girl almost 100 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"BornBorn in Korea, Mary lived internationally during her youth, including periods in England, Canada, and the US. (PA)<\/p>\n

During a special tour of the National Museum of Scotland officials took her on a private tour of the gallery and reunited her with the outfit.<\/p>\n

Comprising a hat, bag and a wraparound jacket \u2013 known as a chimageogori \u2013 the outfit was described as a charming example of traditional Korean dress, or hanbok.<\/p>\n

Suzanne Welsh, home manager at Murrayside care home, said: \u201cIt was a real joy to celebrate Mary\u2019s 105th birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a much-loved resident who always has so many wonderful stories to share about her remarkable life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary is a huge part of the Murrayside family and is always keen to participate, whether it\u2019s getting outdoors, church activities or quizzes.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe also enjoys joining in with the singing sessions and meeting up with friends at coffee mornings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Murrayside, we are committed to ensuring that residents continue to lead fulfilling and exciting lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team are super pleased to have reached our target of 105 cards \u2013 Mary was overjoyed to have received so much love and well wishes from people all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cCheers to Mary!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1117963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[19783,748,1102,4884,712,10022,16,15],"class_list":["post-1117962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-birthday","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-social","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117002990346783881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}