09 Oct 2023
A resident of Tara’s Retreat care home in Sandridge will be a staggering 107 years old next week.
When Dorothy Mary Billington was born in Liverpool on October 18 1916, the globe was gripped by what came to be known as the ‘war to end all wars’, still two years away from ending.
The same month, the first PGA Golf Championship took place in New York, and author and veterinarian James Herriot was born.
Dorothy lived through the Spanish flu pandemic which could have killed as many as 100 million people worldwide, and spent a lot of her childhood in her mother’s home region of the Lake District, holidaying, hiking and spending time with her grandparents.
She loved to read, and particularly enjoyed English at school.
She was a member of the Girl Guides and on leaving school went to a clerical college to study shorthand and typing to fulfil her father’s wish for her to work on the railways as a secretary.
Dorothy was part of a walking club for many years, and it was there she met her husband Fred, who she married in 1947 and spent 49 years with until his death in 1996.
She used to play table tennis and even won a cup, and her other hobbies included dress making and knitting.
Dorothy has one daughter, a son-in-law, three grandchildren and several great grandchildren.
She moved from Liverpool to St Albans aged 95 to be nearer her daughter, and has lived at Tara’s Retreat in Sandridge for the past year and a half.
Having walked four miles in her late 90s, she still strives to keep fit and attends the home’s chair exercise class every Friday.
Staff at Tara’s Retreat are hoping for her to receive more than 107 cards following an appeal on social media, and will also be hosting a small gathering with her family.
