Shropshire woman who wrote a book in her 90s dies
A Shropshire woman who in her 90s wrote a book about adapting to her new life in a care home has died.
Mrs Joan Barlow, who was 98, was the author of several short story collections, many of which were adapted by Robert Green and his volunteers for the East Shropshire Talking Newspaper.
She was herself registered blind, with a little sight in just one eye.
Joan started writing her stories after her husband of 60 years died. She enjoyed the company of a creative writing class at Telford College of Arts and Technology for several terms which led to her publishing The Village Green, fictional stories set in a small village in Durham where she lived for some years.
In 2017 she became one of the oldest writers in Britain to have a new book out, prompted by her move into the Farcroft residential home in Wellington – only a stone's throw from her beloved bungalow.
Called Fractured Times, it reflected on her changed circumstances, from independence, to dependency, and included wistful reminiscences of her old, disappeared world.
Mrs Barlow, whose maiden name was McLoughlin, was brought up at Norton-on-Tees on Teesside. She died on New Year's Day.
