AN independent woman who made friends with ‘everyone she met’ turned 100 over the weekend.
Betty Swift, originally from Oakwell, was a regular at The Mount pub on Pontefract Road since it opened.
The resident at Saxondale EMI Care Home in Old Town made friends with everyone in the pub and was a friendly face for staff and pub-goers alike.
Her daughter, Anne Cherryholme, told the Chronicle: “She’s had a good innings.
“She would go to The Mount since it opened, right through to when she was 95 or 96.
“All the people there knew her, she was close to all the owners and had many friends.
“Originally she would go with her dad, but after he died she carried on going because she was friends with everyone.”
Betty’s regular order was a small whiskey, topped up with lemonade - Anne said this, along with her morning porridge, ‘kept her going’.
Last Saturday, to celebrate her birthday, the care home organised a birthday party where all her family attended.
“We were all there,” Anne added.
“She has dementia now, but before you couldn’t have met a nicer person.
“At her party she wasn’t too bad, but we struggled to get her to smile.
“Before going to the home she lived with me for two years - when she was about 97 she got bad but up to then she was fine.
“She was really independent, and did everything for herself - she was always so tidy and walked around cleaning everything.”
