TRIBUTES have been paid to a community stalwart who ran a store for almost half a century.

Lily Sage, owner of LM Sage in Southminster, passed away this month after running her hardware shop for almost 50 years.

The 83-year-old went to hospital on May 13 after saying she felt dehydrated.

The doctors diagnosed her with septicaemia, and she was taken off life support two days later.

Daughter Alison Perry, 52, of Latchingdon, spoke about her mother’s life and how it influenced her community.

Alison said: “She came from Enfield and moved to King’s Road, Southminster, in the Sixties.

“She had a chicken farm before she had the shop.

“She was very helpful and a lovely lady in the community.

“It was her life, this shop. That’s why she ran it until the age she did.

“Everybody used to know Lily – they used to call her ‘Lily Savage’.”

Mrs Sage, who owned the shop, also sold carpets and provided tool hire when husband Thomas was alive.

Alison said: “She was a foster child so she was quite strict.

“Her house was open to all the kids. I don’t know how because we wrecked her house and ate all her food. But she had so much love to give. She was definitely a giver in that respect.

“She also used to do the summer fetes and made the burgers out of a van. She was a doting grandmother and great-grandmother and loved all her children.”

Alison said the last time she spoke to her mother was when she was about to go to Broomfield Hospital.

She added: “I have never seen anything like it. They did everything they could to save her and I can’t fault them for that in any way.

“It shook me really. I announced her passing on Facebook the way I did because of who she was in the community.

“People have been leaving so many nice comments about her.”

The funeral will take place at St Leonard’s Church, Southminster, on June 7 followed by the wake at the Kings Head pub.