Great-great-great grandmother from Stonebridge dies aged 101

Sylvia Green with her granddaughter Michelle Thomas (Image: GeminiXperience Photography)

Sylvia Green, who had 81 direct living descendants, was still “full of chatter” three days before she died from a chest infection at the age of 101.

Last March she celebrated her milestone birthday party thanks to a video link to her home in Knatchbull Road, as she was taken ill just as her relatives flew in from all over the world.

Michelle Thomas, 48, her granddaughter, said: “I was with her in the morning the day she died combing her hair, talking and singing to her.

“I said ‘can you hear me’ and she looked at me and nodded her head.”

Mrs Green was a founding member of the Beulah Apostolic Church which is reopening a brand new building in Church Road, Harlesden, on May 28, which will be dedicated to her.

Ms Thomas said: “She went to church from when she was a little girl. She cooked for the Beulah Apostolic Church and nurtured the younger ones.

“She showed them the way to go by encouraging them, not telling them that’s what they should do. That’s what people loved about her, the way she said everything. It was a shame the church wasn’t open for the funeral but they did the service for her.”

It was her desire to have her funeral there but the service was held by Beulah members at St Michael’s Church in St Michael’s Avenue, Wembley, last week.

Ms Thomas said: “Now the funeral is over I can sit and think how long did we really expect her to keep going?

“We fulfilled her wishes and take a lot of comfort from what she did and what she told us over the years.”

Carmen Rodney, of the Beulah Apostolic Church, said: “We are dedicating the building to her. She was a founding member and an exceptional person. Everyone in the church loved her, she was quite a character.”

Mrs Green died on April 13.

Related link: Brent family with SIX living generations celebrates great-great-great grandmother’s 100th birthday