A lucky lady enjoys party

5:32pm Friday 8th August 2008

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Jane Curley celebrated a "lucky" milestone 100th birthday yesterday, on the first day of the Beijing Olympics.

Mrs Curley, who devoted her life to caring for elderly people, celebrated her centenary in East Hendred with dozens of family and villagers at a garden party held at the Holy Trinity Monastery in the village.

The number eight is considered so lucky in China that the Olmpics started tonight at precisely 8.08pm and eight seconds. Mrs Curley, who was born in Newcastle, said: "If I was Chinese, I would have been very lucky."

She and her late husband Jack moved to East Hendred 37 years ago on their retirement.

They met while working in a hospital where she was a nurse, and he was a porter and married in 1933.

Mrs Curley said: "The highlight of my life was getting married, because we were terribly in love. He was a wonderful husband and was so handsome."

The couple worked at nursing homes in Bishop Auckland, Macclesfield, Leicester and Newbury.

She added: "My earliest memory was when I was about five years old, back in 1913 when my mother had another baby and my father took me to stay with my aunty. I've lived through two world wars and two very bad recessions since then.

"I had some trouble with my eyes and once with my thyroid, but I'm a picture of health now."

Mrs Curley had three brothers and a sister, all of whom lived into their late 80s or 90s.

Her friend Barbara Smith said: "She's such a character and she's got a wicked sense of humour. She's very well known in the village."