Hi all, just stumbled across this. I am Betty's son, Gareth. Mark you are right, Geoff has done a great job, Betty was the oldest of 4. Jimmy was next and then Brenda and Brian (the twins) arrived making up the family for Jim and Rose. Mum was working as a hairdresser in John Lewis and Picture Post decided to do a story on a post war hard working, working class, inner city girl, and they chose Betty, from Cregoe Street.
The Picture Post was actually shipped out all around the world and Mum ended up with many pen pals all around the World (including a Sheik). It then turned into a fantastic romantic story as my dad, Roy was serving in the Royal Navy and The Picture Post made its way out to the ships where he was serving out in the far east. They became pen pals, whilst on leave he then turned up & knocked on her parents door (much to their disgust ..... Mum's Dad didn't like the Welsh!) they fell in love and the rest is history. They married, moved to Shirley, Solihull and had two children, myself and my elder brother David. She was a wonderful caring mother (bit biased of course but it is true) and she continued to work as a part time hairdresser and worked at Oakenshaw School, for special needs kids, which suited Mum's caring nature down to a tee.
She stayed fit healthy and oh so active, had so much energy and was also a bit of a rebel (didn't really care much for Covid Rules). She was still full of life at 89 when at the end of 2022, she unfortunately suffered a huge Stroke and passed away a few weeks later.
It's so lovely to see people communicating about this story over 70 years later. We still have a couple of copies of the Picture Post she appeared in and if anyone wants me to try to post the full story on line I will upload the pages.
