Lilian Hallam had been corresponding with the Examiner for 25 years — and when she reached 100 earlier this year, she made a special request to meet our columnist Denis Kilcommons. He was happy to help her make it an extra special occasion.
Lilian was a twin to parents Harold and Alice. She and her brother Leslie Brown were born in Hill Top, Slaithwaite, but moved to Slack when they were four when her father acquired a fish and chip shop in Outlane.
When her father, Harold, died from typhoid fever the family moved back to the Colne Valley, eventually settling on Ing Head Road.
She married Stuart Hallam in 1940 and they had two sons, Keith and Trevor. Lilian worked as a weaver and also, for a time, ran her own fish and chip shop in Oakes with her sister-in-law, Gladys Hallam.
Lilian and Stuart had been married 55 years when he died in 1995.
She leaves five grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, two great grandchildren and four step-great grandchildren.
Lilian attended at Pole Moor and the Zion Chapel at Slaithwaite and in recent years had been a regular at Meltham Baptists.
She and her husband caught the travel bug in the early 1970s and holidayed all over Europe and eventually bought a timeshare in the Algarve, Portugal.
Her granddaughter, Anne Hallam, said: “Lilian was someone who liked a party – any excuse for a bit of a do. Her favourite meal out was always fish and chips. She had seen a century of enormous change, not all for the better. For a little woman she had some forthright views.
“She worked hard, played hard and enjoyed life to the full and supported her family in all things.”
