Newton St Boswells' Joan celebrates reaching ripe old age of 107

Joan Eaglesham reached that ripe old age on Friday, and her care home threw a party for family and friends to mark the occasion.

Joan, born in 1909, has been a resident of Grove House Care Home in Kelso since May last year.

A former tailoress, she is originally from Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway but moved to Jedburgh from Annan in 1957 after her late husband Jim was appointed as rector of the grammar school there. They later moved to Newtown St Boswells after his retirement.

The couple got married in 1938 and had four children – three daughters and one son.

Jim died in 1993, and Joan had been living on her own since then, until last year.

Susan Culley, a senior social care worker at the Edenside Road home, said: “It was a lovely party we had for her family and friends, and she said she was absolutely overwhelmed by it all.

“She told me that she was just so grateful that she was still mentally able and alert enough to appreciate it all as it was such a good day. She’s not a drinker normally, but she had a glass of wine to mark the occasion, and we got a massive cake for her.”

Joan is the oldest resident at the Scottish Borders Council-run home and might well be the oldest woman in Scotland following the death of Jessie Gallan, of Aberdeen, at the age of 109 in March.

Scotland’s oldest man, at 108, as of March, is Alf Smith, of Perth and Kinross, and the oldest person in the world, at 116, is Italian Emma Morano.