Great Aunt Mary was born in 1899 to Charles and Jessie BRUCE. She never married and lived at Station Rd, West Dereham, Norfolk for almost the whole of her life. She looked after Jessie, her mother, until she died in 1960, and had a Scottish lodger called Robert. She was devoted to her half sister Millie.

As children we spent many summer holidays with her. She had a wonderful doll's house, and a bag of shiny, twinkly fabric offcuts. There was a pump in the back yard, and delicious white currant bushes in the (seemingly) huge garden, with a privy at the bottom of the garden.There were no mod cons at all in her house. Certainly no bathroom. Did she cook on a range? Alas, the row of cottages are no longer there, having been developed into one large detached house.

She spent the final few years of her life at High Haven Home in Downham Market, where she died on 23 May 1997.

She is buried in West Dereham churchyard,in the new plot opposite the church.