A “born and bred” Goole woman saw in her 100th birthday surrounded by her most nearest and dearest last week.
Lily Crabtree, wife of the late author and Goole Docks worker Harold, celebrated the huge milestone on Friday, October 15 at Beech Tree House Care Home in Goole. The 100-year-old, who was born in 1921 to parents who lived on Adeline Street, remained in Goole her entire life. During wartime, Lily worked at the Blackburn Aircraft factory, which was located in Brough and after the war worked in Marks & Spencer in the town before going on to have other jobs all located in the Goole area. She met and married fellow Goolian Harold, who was well known in the community for his literary works which depicted his life working on The Docks. Lily is also a mother to Sherin, who was born with down-syndrome. She cared for her throughout her life until she became too old to carry out all the caring responsibilities Sherin required.
A close family friend, Lorraine Barber, took over as Sherin’s carer and later housed and helped care for Lily from the age of 97 until she was taken into Beech Tree at age 99. Lorraine said: “She lived with me for 18 months until she became too frail and unfortunately had a couple of falls. That’s when she said ‘I think it’s time I went into care’. “Lily was such a physically active woman before growing older. She used to go on walks every day and was so independent. She was active well into her 90s.” Lily, who is described as having “a great sense of humour”, loved to travel and spent many of her younger years visiting different countries with her husband and brother and sister-in-law. She also went on many holidays with her friends - Norway and Italy were some of her favourite places to visit. The mother-of-one, along with her husband, were big cricket fans and spent many summers travelling up to Scarborough cricket ground to watch the matches. Lorraine described the 100-year-old as a “marvellous woman” and said, “it has been an honour to be part of her life for so long”. Lily was treated like a royal on her big day with a homemade cake, donated balloons and a visit from the mayor - Cllr Chris Bailey. The care home residents were also treated to nostalgic songs from bygone eras performed by the musical duo band Mood Swings.
Goole’s Mayor, Cllr Chris Bailey visited Lily on her special day. (21-10-210 GT/RJ)
