Betty’s Life of Warmth, Mischief and Love

Betty from Respect’s Coroneagh Park has lived a life that is equal parts mischief, hard work and deep, abiding love and at 100 years old, she has earned every chapter of it. 

Betty grew up in West Ridgley as one of five siblings, and by her own family’s account, she was always ready for adventure.

As a young girl she and her sister Margery – who Betty always insisted was the instigator – once placed a litter of kittens into a butter churn, added water and began churning in the hope of making butter. They did not make butter. On another occasion, the two girls burnt the barn down playing with fire. Both events, needless to say, got them into lots of trouble. 

Life was simple but not always easy. One Christmas, money was so scarce that each child received a single pencil case. Betty was genuinely grateful to receive the gift.  

As a teenager she trapped rabbits and used the money she earned to fund her Glory Box – Betty was a practical girl with her eye firmly on the future.

That future arrived in 1947 when Betty married Geoffrey and began building the family she had always dreamed of. Their first daughter Judith was, in Betty’s words, the perfect child – sitting still on Betty’s knee for an entire bus journey from Tewksbury to Burnie without a peep.

Judith later contracted polio, a devastating time for the young family. She spent months in hospital at Latrobe, and when Betty and Geoff finally brought her home, Judith no longer knew who her parents were. It was a heartbreak that stayed with Betty always. 

Eight years later came Lorraine – the opposite of her sister in every possible way. Full of energy and requiring, as Betty cheerfully put it, a halter and lead to keep her safe. From that day on Betty introduced her daughters the same way every time: “These are my daughters, Judith and Lorraine – they are like chalk and cheese.” Before she could finish the sentence, both girls would chime in. They still do. 

Betty’s was very handy she knitted, crocheted and sewed with extraordinary skill and patience, working on intricate patterns. If she discovered a mistake halfway down a jumper she could fix it with a crochet hook without unravelling a single row – a skill her family still cannot explain.  

Betty later enrolled in a dressmaking and drafting course at TAFE, completing four years and only stopping short of the final tailoring year. She had always dreamed of becoming a dressmaker, and in many ways she already was one. 

After Geoff passed away Betty took up bowls and it was on the bowls green that she met Ivor, her neighbour and, as it turned out, her second great love. They married and enjoyed more than 27 wonderful years together, travelling around Australia and to New Zealand. Ivor, who recently turned 100 himself, remains a constant presence in Betty’s story.

Betty was diagnosed with dementia at 92. Her family speaks of it with great tenderness, noting that she sometimes revisits the homesickness she felt as a young woman – a grief that surfaces again in a different form. Their hearts, they say, continually go out to her. 

Her secret to reaching 100? Betty will tell you with a smile that it comes down to good genes, remarkable looks and charm – all inherited, naturally, from her family. 

And her advice for the rest of us? “Stay happy and enjoy life.” 

Welcome to the Respect 100 Club, Betty. What a wonderful, wonderful life.