ONE of the oldest women in the country, Elizabeth Healey, of Newton Abbot's Forde Park Nursing Home, celebrated her 107th birthday on Tuesday. Friends and staff held a special party for Mrs Healey and they were joined by Newton Abbot mayor Cllr Daphne Watts, who went along to offer her congratulations. 'She was absolutely sparkling. An incredible lady,' said Cllr Watts. Mrs Healey was born on June 20, 1899, in Little Ouse, Norfolk. Her parents were farmers. She married Harry, a painter and decorator, and they moved to Nuneaton and took summer holidays in Devon. Like so many they enjoyed their visits and when the couple retired they moved to the south west setting up home in Abbotskerswell. For many years she was a member of the Women's Institute and during the second world war was in a rota looking after soldiers passing through railway stations, welcoming them with a hot cuppa. Throughout their lives they had a great involvement with the church, and in Abbotskerswell Mr Healey, who died some 15 years ago, was church warden at the parish church and Mrs Healey was a member of the church women's group. She became a resident at the Forde Park Nursing Home in early 2002. Her only daughter Masie Skodbo, who is 80, lives in Portugal.
