by Stuart McFarlane

Tributes have been paid to a stalwart who survived a close shave during the Blitz to reach the age of 102.

Annina Pacitti, known as Annie, passed away last month after spending 80 years in the area after moving from her birthplace of Rutherglen to Dalmuir to marry her husband Alberto in 1937, with whom she had three children.

Annie was a well-known member of the local Italian community, and was best known for her time running Wallace’s – later known as the High Tide – fish restaurant in the 1960s and 1970s, often serving workers at John Brown’s shipyard.

Shortly after moving to the area, Annie was caught up in the impact of the Clydebank Blitz of March 1941, with son Raymond describing one particularly close shave which could have taken the family’s history in a very different direction.

He said: “We were in a chip shop in Kilbowie Road and my father was playing cards in the back when my mother came through and said ‘do you know they’re dropping bombs here?’ But they just continued and thought it was one of these things, until they heard the bombs drop.

“Due to the blast in Kilbowie Road, it knocked out part of Gordon Street, as it was known originally, and the blast went that way. If it went the other way, we wouldn’t be able to tell this story.”

Following the aftermath of the Blitz, Annie was evacuated out of the area to Kilsyth but soon returned to set up the chip shop business, settling in the town’s Montrose Street for most of her adult life.

But her stories of the period remained a cherished part of the family’s history – especially for her six granddaughters and nine great-granddaughters.

Raymond added: “One of her granddaughters used to go up and ask her about the war during that period for a survey for school and I suppose there aren’t lot of people around that lived through that and were eyewitnesses to it all.”

A period of semi-retirement followed until her husband died in 1989, but she struggled to settle in a number of properties and continued to move around, including moving into a house in Parkhall for just one day before moving out again.

Annie fell just short of celebrating her 103rd year, with her birthday due to fall next Thursday (December 21).

But according to Raymond, even the big event of her 100th birthday was greeted with the minimum of fuss, with a small family celebration organised to receive her telegram from the Queen and a special message from the Italian Consulate in Edinburgh.

She also enjoyed getting out and about when she could, and especially liked to head out to the shops, sometimes buying things not with the intention of keeping them, but just so she could head back up into the shops.

In her later years, she struggled with the impact of osteoporosis and while her mind remained sharp, the impact of the condition took its toll on Annie.

Raymond said: “I’d like to thank all of the team at the Green Medical Practice in Clydebank for all of their excellent care of my mother.”