106.. with sheer grit
Amazing great-gran marks big day
GREAT-grandmother Vera Crisp has survived two world wars and two pandemics to reach the age of 106 through sheer grit and determination.
Vera, who is one of Britain’s oldest people, was born on April 20, 1916 – months before the Battle of the Somme. Growing up in Taunton, Somerset, she survived the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918.
After leaving school she worked as a machinist with a clothing firm. She became such a brilliant seamstress that she went on to make both her daughters’ wedding gowns and bridesmaids’ dresses.
A great ballroom dancer, she would drive herself to lessons in the 1930s – an unusual thing for a young woman before the Second World War.
It was during the war that she met her late husband Sidney while visiting a relative in London. She moved to the East End where she survived an air raid by hiding behind a garden wall as a German bomber strafed the street.
She loved greyhound racing, fishing, cooking and travelling with Sidney, and went on to work for a stockbroker firm with her own client portfolios. She stayed in East London until three years ago when she moved to Fremington Manor care home in Barnstaple, Devon, to be near family. Greatgranddaughters Ellie Newman, 13, and sister Libby, 10, were among those celebrating with her this week. Daughter Pat said: “For sheer grit and determination she takes a lot of beating. She’ll never let a situation get the better of her. She’s an exceptional lady. She still has all her marbles and won’t suffer fools gladly.” adam.aspinall@mirror.co.uk @MirrorAsp