Our resident Bette Palmer has reached the landmark celebration of being 100 years old!
“Keep busy! I was born with an over-active thyroid which meant I was always doing something! When war broke out things were different; shops were restricted so I decided that when I wanted something to wear I would just have to make it myself! So I became a dressmaker and I had a knitting machine and soon my neighbours were asking me to make suits for them too!
I was 14 when the war broke out and living in Wakefield, Yorkshire. I had to fire-watch after doing my homework. There was always an aircraft coming in and out as there were lots of training places nearby.
Because I was in English language senior class I was given an Austrian Jewish girl who was the same age as me to help her with her English. The plan was that us senior girls were to be taken to Canada on two ships and I was listed to be on the second ship. This plan was cancelled however as the first ship was torpedoed when it was halfway across the ocean.
My family were all involved in railway duties and during that time my school was closed down due to a shortage of pupils. I was needed at London Midland Scotland Railways as the young men were called up and we had to make sure the railway transport from the munition factories to the south of the country were not interrupted. My job was to make sure the right fuel was available for the right engines. It was exciting work but noisy. All the noise from the engines on the platform outside is the reason I later suffered from ear trouble and got tinnitus.
I carried on doing more war work and we became short of teachers to I went to Leeds University and took a teaching course. For seven years I was a teacher at Primary School and I loved it! I would say it was the happiest time of my life. I had 50 children in a class and I had a skill of making them feel like I was their auntie. Their parents would invite me round for dinner and I used to have all the parents and children around to my garden too.
Peace efforts were happening and I was asked to be a secretary to help with the twinning of Normandy and a village in Yorkshire. I went to Normandy and met some lovely people over there. Every time it came round to my birthdays or Christmas, they would show their appreciation for my efforts. I brought a little boy back with me for a holiday and when I returned they gave me a keepsake bottle which I still have to this day.
Before the war ended I was offered a job of private banking which I started in Derbyshire. It was difficult to find people at the time who had education and experience so I got a good job. Meanwhile my boyfriend who was in the RAF proposed. He had trained in Rhodesia to be a fighter pilot.
There was an open day as the airfield in Preston, Lancashire. My fiancé said to me ‘Do you fancy a flip?’ I said ‘What do you mean?’ He walked me to a 2 seater aeroplane and he said ‘Climb in the back and tighten your seatbelt!’. He flew me off the airfield, across Lancashire and around Blackpool Tower twice! He said ‘Would you like some aerobatics?’ I said ‘No thanks! I want to go back!’
We were married for 18 years. One day he had an ache and I insisted he went to the Doctor, who sent him to the hospital. I called in to see him and we chatted and he seemed fine so I called into friends on the way home and reported that he was cheerful and had been sat up in bed chatting.
The hospital rang; he had died, we assume from a heart attack. He wasn’t quite 40. I was 39 too and I couldn’t believe it. After that, life was slow.
They advertised for people to emigrate to Australia as they were short of people skilled for work. For £10 you could go! Having been a teacher and a banker I thought I might be useful so I drove in my little car from Yorkshire to London where I would buy my ticket.
I went to see friends whilst I was in London and one of these friends had lost his wife. He said to me ‘Why do you want to go to Australia?’ I said ‘Because I’m at a loose end here. I might as well go there! And I would quite like a hotel’.
One friend said ‘There’s a hotel for sale on the Isle of Wight’ and she had a leaflet. She said ‘Why bother going to Australia when you could buy that one!’
Me and my bereaved friend looked at each other and said ‘What do you think? Shall we have a look at it?’
So we went to the Isle of Wight and it was a beautiful Georgian style building in three acres of parkland and we decided we would buy this hotel instead of going to Australia!
So we bought the hotel and the first work we did there was our own wedding reception!
It gave us practice in how to run a hotel and we made plans for the future. We were excited to build a ballroom so got the plans and ordered oak panels and girders to be imported from China. We laid the floor ourselves over one weekend and worked hard to make it decent for dancing. We had a few happy years in that hotel.
After some time though things got a bit difficult and we brought in a partner to help us but he didn’t fit in well and we decided to sell the hotel and come back to England and start a business. We bought the New Inn at Goodleigh. It was very pretty and located in a village that had good local trade. They needed a dining room so we organised that.
My second husband went on a business trip to China and when he came back he fell ill and died. I gave up the pub a short time after that.
Whilst we were at the New Inn we had got involved with the Masonry and my husband became a member. I found out there was a ladies lodge and I joined. After a few years I ended up being a senior member in the area and I met my third husband at a Mason’s Meeting. We were asked to run the club in the lodge and move into the flat in Barnstaple. Whilst there, running the club, my third husband got cancer and died. I lived on my own for a while but I couldn’t do the lodge work on my own so it was a challenging time but then one day one of the members told me about a vacancy in an almshouse!
I love living in the almshouses because it feels secure. You’re not likely to get thrown out unless you misbehave! And they make sure you are looked after. So I am here, retired, waiting to be 100 and I feel fit enough to get there!
I have a vacuum cleaner upstairs, a cordless for the stairs and a good washing machine. I manage to look after myself so far. My friend pops in to say hello and we often go out for lunch. Having been a hotelier, I can be critical but I try to keep quiet even when they over-cook the fish! I have no complaints. I’ve had a lovely life. I’ve worked hard and I’ve enjoyed it.“