A Bournemouth care home resident who was part of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) has celebrated her 101 birthday.
Betty, who lives at Talbot View, asked the care home team to host a party for her family and friends to attend to mark the special occasion together on Wednesday 1 May. She also wanted to do some crafts and bake a pie with help from her friends at the care home on Ensbury Avenue.
Betty grew up in Winton as one of seven siblings, leaving school aged 14 to work as an apprentice in the haberdashery section of a department store in Bournemouth town centre. At 18, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), later known as the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF).
Betty was sent to RAF Catterick in North Yorkshire and later to Cornwall where she was responsible for monitoring radar signals and tracking ship movements. She found the work interesting and challenging and it enabled her to work with a mix of new people. Betty met and was briefly engaged to an Australian spitfire pilot who tragically died in a storm over Malta and was buried in a military grave there.
After the war, Betty returned to working in the department store in Bournemouth where she was promoted to manager of the haberdashery department before retiring at 60. Betty never married or had children but was close to her mother and her youngest sister, Eileen, and enjoyed looking after her many nieces and nephews.
Betty continued living in her own home until her late 90s when she moved to Talbot View where she receives personalised day-to-day support from the care team, as well as enjoying a range of activities.
Sebastian Wiencelewski, Home Manager at Talbot View, said: “It was lovely to help Betty to celebrate her special 101 birthday with her family and the other care home residents. Betty is a joy to care for. She loves chatting to our care home team and is always keen to have a little dance when we have musicians in to perform, which is lovely to see.”
Talbot View, which is run by the not-for-profit charity Care South, provides specialist residential, respite, and dementia care. The care home features a range of communal lounges overlooking a landscaped garden for residents to enjoy. Talbot View has a dedicated activities team who organise a daily programme of events to bring residents together to socialise and build friendships.
Care South is the leading provider of high quality residential and home care services across the south of England. The not-for-profit organisation, which is a registered charity, has care homes in Dorset, north Devon, Somerset and West Sussex, and home care offices covering east and west Dorset, and northeast Somerset and south Somerset. For more information about the care services available, go to care-south.co.uk or call Care South on 01202 712410.
