A MUSIC lover who celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday said nothing, not even the Blitz, had ever stopped her playing the organ.

Centenarian Trudy Marsh still occasionally plays the instrument after she took up the hobby as a girl. She played at various venues across Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire.

“Music has been my life,” said Trudy, who now lives at the Ashgrove House nursing home, off Station Road, Purton.

She celebrated her milestone with a party on Sunday for family and friends yesterday with a performance from a string quartet.

Trudy said the secret to her long life was clean living.

She said: “I feel I worked pretty hard to get here. I recommend living cleanly and not chasing after the boys.”

Trudy grew up in Worcestershire with her two sisters then moved as a girl to Cirencester.

Her mother was killed in an accident when Trudy was young and, with her father away working, she was mainly brought up by her grandparents.

However, she inherited her father’s love of playing the organ and took piano and organ lessons at Cirencester Parish Church.

She married husband Jack, a farmer, in the 1940s and worked as a music teacher in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire. They did not have any children.

They later moved to Brinkworth.

Trudy is also well travelled and over the last 40 years has visited Australia, Japan, Africa and exotic locations all over the Mediterranean.

Her love affair with the organ has continued throughout her life and one of Trudy’s best experiences was when she played at Christ Church, one of the largest colleges at Oxford University.

She said: “That’s something I’ll never forget, it was wonderful.”

During the Second World War and the Blitz, Trudy lived in Cirencester and had to cycle home back home from the church in complete darkness because of the blackout.

In the last few years she has played the piano in Malmesbury Abbey and she says she still prefers classical church music, particularly by her favourite composer Beethoven.

She said: “I don’t like current music, I don’t like popular music – I can’t bear it.”