Margaret “Peggy” Ratcliff turned 100 years old July 29. She stopped going to church decades ago or even thinking much about God.  

Her neighbor David Barnfield would mention Jesus from time to time, but she wasn’t interested.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” she would say.

“She was never hostile,” David says, “but I knew when I’d said enough.”

Ms. Peggy never married, and all of her siblings are gone, so David helps look after her. 

“She’s like a second mum to me,” he says. 

On Saturday, Sept. 22, while they were shopping, he asked if she would fancy going with him to the Lancashire Festival of Hope in Blackpool the next day. She agreed and said she would be ready at 2 p.m.

He popped over at 10 a.m. the next morning to check on her.

“I wanted to make sure she was still going,” he said. 

Then his voice softened. “There may not be another time,” he said. 

Ms. Peggy gave Franklin her undivided attention. And when the invitation was given, David asked: ‘Would you like someone to pray with you, Peggy?”

“Well, I can’t walk down there,” she said. David hurriedly went in search of a counselor. And at 100 years of age, Ms. Peggy was born again!