Familiar face in Southam can now enjoy putting her feet up

But since last Friday, that smiling face will be missed, as the 69-year-old is working her last day at Southam Pharmacy after 44 years in the job.

Born and raised in the town, the former St Mary’s Catholic School pupil began working at the chemist on April 16 1964 at the age of 25 – and she has loved it so much that she never wanted to leave.

Even now, Mrs Lines is sad to go. She said: “I am going to be 70 in May and everyone thought it was probably time for me to go.

“If I had been given the choice, I would have said I’d stick with it for another year and then that year would end and I’d probably say the same again. I don’t feel ready to retire, but everybody has to.

“When I think about leaving, it’s the most horrendous feeling. It’s going to take a lot of adjustment.”

Unsurprisingly, the grandmother-of-nine, who has spent most of her career working on the medicines counter, has seen many changes at the pharmacy over the decades.

She said: “The shop inside has been altered about five times and it is much bigger now. It was just a very small pharmacy when I started with very few staff. We used to sell mostly just medicines, cosmetics and items for babies, but now it’s more or less everything - whatever the management want to stock. We have slimming aids and hair accessories and lots of make-up.”

She added: “I have always lived in Southam, so I know a lot of people here and it’s lovely to see them come in to the pharmacy.

“I enjoy every aspect of it, but it’s the customer relationships you get that make the job so pleasant.

“We get so busy sometimes you don’t even get a chance to make a cup of coffee all day and we do get the odd ones who get cross if their prescription has not arrived and you have to calm them down. But 90 per cent of the time, our customers are very good, understanding and accommodating.”

Mrs Lines’s husband Peter has, despite his age of 73, not yet retired from his job as a community link bus driver – but he has promised her he will stop working at the end of the year.

She said: “I hope I will cope with retirement. I have a large garden that needs attention and Peter has bought me a ten-week-old puppy called Molly who I suspect will take up a lot of my time.”