Sheffield women celebrate big birthdays - totting up 208 years between them

Hetty Hempshall and Nellie Alker recently marked their 105th and 103rd milestones, respectively.

Barbara Singleton, Hetty’s daughter, said her mum was born on May 18 in Canada.

She said: “She was sent away to be in service when she was quite young for a family friend who lived in St John’s.

“Mum lived in St John’s until she met my father who was in the Navy and stationed there for four years during the war.

“They married in Newfoundland and had a son.

“At the end of the war, in July 1945, she came to live in England.”

Hetty, who now lives at Sheffcare’s Midhurst Road residential care home, Foxhill , had five children.

She now also has eight grandchilden and six great grandchilden.

She worked at Bassetts for a short time, then went to work for former Sheffield United and England footballer Graham Shaw , as a cook at his cafe until she retired.

Barbara said: “Mum always loved to cook and bake and do knitting, sewing, embroidery and crochet work, which she still loves to do.”

It was quiet birthday for Nellie Alker, who spent it in Sheffcare’s Grange Crescent residential care home in Nether Edge during lockdown.

She was bo rn in Darnall in 1917 and grew up with mum and dad Lillian and Sydney, brother Sydney and sister Janet.

After leaving school, she went to work in a pharmacy, a career she continued through most of her working life.

She was aged in her 20s when she met Edward Martin, the man who would become her husband and father to her son Alan.

Nellie still recalls how she and Edward honeymooned in Blackpool and then returned to the resort every year, where they enjoyed dancing in the famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

Asha Oliver, Grange Crescent manager, said: “Nellie is a lovely lady who takes a lot of care in her appearance, which is very important to her and also to her family.

“Although she only came to live with us in January this year, she has settled in very quickly and is a popular resident.”

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