Marion marks her milestone birthday

But the staff at Nicholson House in Lisburn sensibly decided not to mark out each year of their star resident’s life with individual candles - due to the fact there would be 104 of them to cram on top of her favourite sponge.

Not that Lisburn’s (reportedly) oldest resident would let blowing out over a century’s worth of candles defeat her - she still has lots of puff and needs minimum help from employees at the home where she’s been living for the past two and-a-half years.

Someone who knows her best is activity therapist Caroline Hefferon who has also become a firm friend and was one of the first to offer her hearty congratulations.

“Surprisingly, there were no congratulations from the Queen this year, although last year when we celebrated Marion’s 103rd birthday there was a Royal card,” Caroline says.

“But there have been plenty of other cards and presents to open and bouquets of flowers have been arriving all day.

“She is such a lovely lady and still enjoys the occasional shopping trip to Marks and Spencer’s.”

Marion may enjoy Marks and Spencer’s now, but in her youth she was dressed personally by designer Christian Dior while attending finishing school in Paris where she wined and dined with Russian princesses and rubbed shoulders with the Parisienne glitterati.

“As a young woman, Marion lived in an apartment with Alma Poliakoff of the Russian Tzars family and she attended many glittering parties and met some very important people,” said Caroline.

“She was introduced to Eva Peron and her first sweetheart was Fritz Von Richtofen, nephew of the Red Baron. The stories of Marion’s life are fascinating.”

Certainly, the young Marion Klara Gabriella managed to fit a lot in after she was born in Breslau, Silesia in Germany, on March 19, 1909, daughter to the founder of the iconic German shoe brand, Dorndorf Shoes.

As well as travelling extensively, she ran a large herd of pedigree Ayreshire cattle at Whiteabbey outside Belfast and delivered fresh milk to the Royal Victoria Hospital each day during the Second World War.

Her journey from Paris to Whiteabbey is also an intriguing one, having arrived in Northern Ireland following her first marriage in 1928 to Lavens Mackie of the famous Belfast Mackie factory.

“She actually met her husband while he was on a sales trip to her father’s shoe factory to sell a flax spinning and twisting plant and that was how Marion ended up in Northern Ireland,” Caroline says. “Marion was also on the board of governors of the Royal Victoria Hospital throughout the War and became the first female president of the poultry division of the Farmers’ Union.”

Her motto, apparently, is to try “everything at least once” - but she managed the state of matrimony twice.

When her first husband passed away, Marion walked up the aisle a second time in 1979 with James McIntrye from Scotland where she lived until his death in 1983, at which point she returned to Northern Ireland and settled outside Lisburn.

Her days being dressed by Dior may be behind her, but Mrs Mackie-McIntyre is still no slouch when it come to her threads. “Marion’s blouses have to be 100 per cent cotton and her sweaters 100 per cent cashmere,” Caroline reveals.

“She’s quite particular about that and her youngest son Derek (now in his seventies) makes sure his mum looks her best.”

Marion has two other sons, Gordon and Lavens, while her eldest child, daughter Anita, is in her eighties and lives in North Carolina, America.

“We are so proud to have Marion as a resident here,” Caroline concludes. “She has her afternoon nap, but when she wakens up, she is always ready to have a laugh with us and tell another story.”