Cigarette wreath for 105-year-old smoker

Nursing home staff paid tribute to a 105-year-old British woman who had smoked since the age of 15 by cremating her with a packet of cigarettes and laying a large floral cigarette on her coffin.

Marie Ellis died — of natural causes — at the Eaton Lodge Nursing Home in Kent, southeast England, in early December and was cremated on Tuesday, clutching a packet of her favorite Benson & Hedges cigarettes.

“We will always remember her for her smoking because the first thing she asked when she got up was ’Can I have a cigarette?,’” said matron Maria Kallis, who commissioned a large wreath in the shape of a cigarette, made with white and yellow chrysanthemums, for the spinster’s coffin.

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The enigmatic Ellis, an ex-typist, arrived at the nursing home 15 years ago.

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Apart from her 15-a-day habit, she was also notorious amongst staff for her unhealthy eating habits, often asking for sugar in her soup and always demanding three sugars in her coffee.

Staff played the song Smoke Gets in Your Eyes at Ellis’ funeral and are planning a memorial concrete ashtray for her in the nursing home garden, where her ashes will also be buried.