Littlehampton's Betty turns 102 years young

Betty, who lives at Nightingale Nursing Home, in Beach Road, Littlehampton, celebrated her 102nd birthday on Saturday.

Her best friend, Muriel Pallett, said: "She is someone whom I am always pleased to see!

"She has a wonderful sense of humour; she can be quite naughty, and she thoroughly enjoys it! She doesn't drink or smoke, so I think that is the secret to her long life."

Betty grew up in and around London and says her happiest childhood memories involve her extended family.

"My aunt used to take me to the pictures on a Saturday '” it used to cost sixpence. And Uncle Henry used to come at the weekend.

"He had a moustache, but I let him give me a kiss because I knew he would give me sixpence!"

She started her first job, in the office of Express Diary in Notting Hill, three days after her 14th birthday, and during the Second World War spent time as a night air raid warden.

"I don't remember much from those days, apart from scraping to survive," she said.

It was during her time in London that she met her partner Ted, and the two later moved to Worthing, where they operated a bed and breakfast for many years, until they moved to Bury, to run a smallholding.

"It was very hard work, but it was a lovely life," said Betty, "we used to grow raspberries, and Ted would take them up to Covent Garden every morning."

As the pair grew older, and Ted's health started to deteriorate, and they moved to Rustington, where Ted sadly died.

Muriel said that Betty and new husband Tom became her neighbours in the

late 1970s, and that a strong friendship had blossomed.

"We are firm friends, and when Tom needed to go into a care home a few years later, we all used to go visit him together.

"Betty never stopped though, and was always volunteering at the Methodist Church in Rustington, helping the young mums with their new babies."

In the early 1980s, Betty, too, needed residential care, and moved into Oakland Grange Nursing Home, and later to Nightingale, where Tom died in 1998.

Muriel said that the staff at Nightingale had "done her proud" with a lovely birthday party, where she was surrounded with cake, balloons and friends.

Betty has two step-children, David and Vivienne, from Tom, who live in Dorset and north London respectively, and three grand-children.

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