A FORMER teacher has celebrated her 107th birthday with her loving family and says she has them to thank for her longevity and love of life.
Lottie Lang was entertained in the morning by a pianist and singer, including a rendition of Edelweiss from the Sound of Music, one of her favourite songs.
Later she enjoyed a meal and afternoon tea with her daughter, one of her two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren at her home, Kolbe House in Hanger Lane, Ealing.
Lottie said: "It was fantastic. I really enjoyed myself.
Asked about the secret to her longevity she said: "To keep your mind active. I enjoy reading and keeping up to date with what my family are doing."
The Polish consulate sent two representatives to the celebration last Tuesday (22). Lottie was born to Jewish parents in 1904 in Breslau, the capital of German Silesia and now the Polish city of Wroclaw.
She had a happy childhood but that happiness came to an end when Hitler came to power in 1933, when Lottie was 29. After a fearful existence avoiding capture by the Nazis, she escaped to England. Her sister managed to emigrate to San Salvadore in El Salvador, Central America, and they were reunited 30 years later but her father and brother were murdered by the Nazis.
She worked as a housemaid and then in a factory before meeting Adolf, her husband of 27 years. She got a job as an English teacher in the early 1960s, before Adolf's career took them to France and then Switzerland.
She was able to carry on teaching, which she did until she was 90 and decided to slow down.
Lottie said: "Teaching is my passion I don't know why it's just always been in me. When I was a child and had friends over I always wanted to play school."
After her husband died in the early 1970s, Lottie stayed in Switzerland for another 30 years before moving back to England aged 96 to be closer to her family.
She has had an eventful life, some of it traumatic, but says her philosophy is to look forward rather than dwell on the past.
She said: "My principle is not to live in the past, that's only for you and you can't change it, but to enjoy the past and always live for the future. You always have to have something to look forward to. For me it's seeing my family who visit me often."
