A DANCING-MAD 101-year-old celebrated her landmark birthday at a Wombwell care home.
Joan Rowbottom was the life and soul of the party at Parkside Care Home, on Park Street, last weekend as she reached the milestone on Friday, January 21.
Joan received more than 160 cards, gifts and flowers from fellow residents, staff and the local community - and staff threw a huge party for everyone at the home.
Daughter Hazel Swift, 77, said her mum was ‘finally starting to settle down’ after a life filled with fun and dancing.
Joan left school at 14 and worked for much of her life in her grandma’s fish shop at Low Valley.
She lived for a time in Hemingfield before returning to Wombwell and a house on Thompson Street, where she stayed until last year when she went into the home.
Hazel, of Schofield Road, Darfield, said: “She’s been so active all her life.
“She loved dancing. She was sequence dancing up to being 90 years old, and went all over to different places.
“She met my dad Edgar Newsome rollerskating - she fell and sprained her ankle, and he took her home - and met Harry, her second husband, about 15 years ago through dancing.
“She grumbles a bit about being in the home, but she’s finally starting to settle down a bit.”
