No stopping 100-year-old Evelyn

Evelyn’s secret to a long and happy life is to always love life, and live it well.

Daughter Angela Taylor said: “She has always been a very caring person; very generous. She has always been helping out others before herself.”

Evelyn was well known in the area as one of the faces behind Woodkirk Garage in Dewsbury Road, which she owned with husband Ted.

The pair moved from Leeds to take on the garage in 1947 and moved into a house next-door.

When the garage suffered a setback in 1987 when it burned to the ground under the ownership of Evelyn’s son, the late Trevor Twaites. But not to be deterred, mother and son rebuilt the business and moved into a house the other side of the garage.

Angela said: “People used to come to them for years buying car after car after car. They were all very well known.”

Evelyn remained director of the family business until it was sold three years ago.

Now living in Soothill Manor in Batley, Evelyn was also one of the founder members of the Heavy Woollen District Hospital Broadcasts Association at the old Staincliffe hospital. The association was one of the first to be set up in the country in the 1950s.

Angela said she put her life into the family business, but also enjoyed travelling and driving in her younger years.

Daughter-in-law Vicki Twaites added: “She is such a strong character and the whole family, especially the grandchildren, adore her.

Evelyn, a grandmother of four and great-grandmother of seven, spent her milestone birthday with many friends and family at a party at the Soothill care home on Monday.