Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Nonagenarian Nessie’s still smiling
More than 50 cards are filling the living room of Agnes “Nessie” Petrie to mark hitting the milestone birthday, and she puts her longevity down to her cheerfulness and always wanting to meet knew folk.
The nonagenarian’s family has three generations of nephews and nieces and is spread right across the world, from China to the United States but there’s still a fair few in Dundee for whom she’s “Aunty Cuggie”.
“I was born Agnes Manderson and brought up in a tenement in Caldrum Street, the youngest of six,” recalls Nessie.
“My father had been in the Scots Greys in the First World War and was gassed, so he ended up with weak lungs after that. My mum was Jessie, and she lived to be 92.
“I went to Dens Road School and then the Rockwell, which I didn’t like very much.”
Like many young people before the war, Nessie was out of school and looking for work by the age of 14.
“My first job was at the bookstall at the Tay Bridge Railway Station and I loved it,” she said.
“It was 1940 and the war was on, so the place was always full of people from all over the world.
“We’d wave at the soldiers as their trains left and it was a wonderful job. I was there a lot of years until I was moved to East Station.
“I was always such a quiet child until I worked at the bookstall. I changed into a chatterbox and I haven’t stopped since.”
Nessie was a shop assistant in one form or another all her working life – the perfect role for an outgoing and engaging lady such as her.
And in 1950, she met the love of her life — Bob Petrie.
“I went out with him for a dare but two years later we were married,” recounts Nessie.
Bob had served in the Second World War as a despatch rider and driver. He had enlisted just before hostilities commenced and due to being a teenager was fortunate not to have been in France at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation.
The couple married at the Manse of the High Kirk in Adelaide Terrace and were together until Nessie lost Bob to cancer in 1995.
Bob worked at Baxters Mill and Low & Bonar over the years and is wellremembered in local junior football circles for playing with YM Anchorage for many years — myriad medals still adorn the family home testifying to his prowess.
“He was a footballer, I was a dancer,” said Nessie.
“I must have danced in every dance hall in Dundee, except the Provie in the Hilltown — it was a bit wild.”
And what’s kept Nessie so young at heart?
“I’ve always been one for a laugh, always wanting to meet new people,” she reveals.
“I might be getting old and done but I still like being around people. You only have one life, so best live it!” Happy birthday, Nessie.
Nessie asked that family and friends didn’t give her presents but donated to two charities that mean a lot to her — Maggie’s Centre, and the Archie Foundation.
As a result, Maggie’s received £300 and more’s on the way for the Archie Foundation.n.
SHE grew up in a Dundee we wouldn’t recognise, gave a wave and a smile to soldiers heading off to war, and she’s still smiling today as she celebrates her 90th birthday.