Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Amazing Beatrice keeps on cooking
Beatrice Barber loves yoga, enjoys dancing and still cooks her family a roast dinner every Sunday – at the age of 100!
The nimble pensioner celebrated reaching the landmark milestone on June 17, surrounded by her two children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren at her home in Canterbury.
She was born in London Road, Teynham, in 1915, and remembers travelling to school on a pony and trap, as well as hop picking in Luddenham.
She met her late husband Douglas as a teenager and they married in Teynham church in 1938, enjoying 61 years of wedded bliss until Douglas passed away.
“I was only 16 when I met Douglas,” Beatrice said.
“I was with my friend and we kept seeing him for many weeks. He was nice looking but I was only 16 and he was 19. I had to ask my mum.
“We courted for seven years before we got married. He would go into Woolworths and buy biscuits, lemonade and sweets and we would cycle to Leysdown for a picnic.”
Beatrice moved to Canterbury at the age of 23, recalling that there was a cattle market where the bus station now is, and how she ran into the Cathedral when there was an air-raid siren during the Second World War.
She is a keen gardener and has won awards for her embroidery work, knitting two blankets for her grandsons earlier this year.
Still nimble, Beatrice visits Age UK a couple of times a week,
‘I’ve had a happy life, a good upbringing and now I’ve got a great family to support me’
where she takes part in yoga sessions.
She said: “When we were younger, we couldn’t even visit Faversham as it seemed far away because we had to walk there.
“We would only go to the seaside once a year, but we were much more content back then. Nowadays, everyone always wants more.
“I’ve had a happy life, a good upbringing and now I’ve got a great family to support me.”
Beatrice’s granddaughter Nicki Hood, of Salters Lane in Faversham, said: “I think she’s amazing. She is such an inspiration. It’s my son’s birthday party this weekend and I know she will be the one dancing at the front and staying until the end.”
Beatrice’s 70-year-old daughter Susan, added: “All the time that mum is still around, I’ll never be old.”