Now her stories have caught the eye of a publishing house, who want her to write them down with a view to producing a book.

The extremely modest Mary can't believe anyone would want to read her stories - but those who have heard them would surely disagree.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when I was asked to put together some of my stories - I wondered who on earth would be interested in reading them!

"Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely thrilled. It's so exciting to think that a book is being done. What I have to do now is get a lot of them down on paper, which I'm hoping some of my children will help me with!

"A lot of my stories are in my head, because they're stories about growing up in Ballymena and are mostly about my own mistakes or predicaments in life.

"When I'm writing them down, I've been asked not to change a thing - to write it the way I would say it. I'm glad about that because I think nowadays too many accents are being lost. I hope when it's written down people will be able to almost hear the accent coming through."

The book is being printed by Nicholson & Bath and it is hoped it will be in the shops in time for Christmas.

Mary, whose maiden name was McReynolds, now lives in Granville Drive but grew up on Springwell Street.

She said: "We had a wee shop where the Grouse Inn was, which was then made into a parlour. My mother had two friends who came three days a week and they sat in our parlour knitting and talking.

"My father and two uncles were also fantastic story tellers. I can remember my brother and I used to sit underneath the drop leaf table listening to them telling stories about banshees and witches. My father had two house rules - no politics and no scandal.

"So I grew up with everyone telling stories and when I went out into the world - to school and work - I started to tell stories too. Pretty soon people started saying 'tell us that story about..' and it just carried on from there."

Mary was asked to join Ballymena Writers years ago by Leon McAuley and is now President of the group - but confesses to seldom writing anything down!

She said: "I just love stories. I love hearing them and I love telling them. Now I've got to write them down but it'll be worth it if it means others can enjoy them in years to come."