Seventy-seven-year-old Mrs Grace Harbour made her first plane flight yesterday. She was travelling to New York for a reunion with her 70-year-old brother, who emigrated 52 years ago. Mrs Harbour, of 64 Oakley Road, Rushden, is not at all worried by the prospect of air travel—although she has never done before left the country and doesn’t really enjoy travelling.

“I have been told that it is a very good way to travel,” she said.

Her brother Sidney visited Rushden 26 years ago, and she has not seen him since. He lives in Connecticut.

But in the midst of the excitement, Mrs Harbour said that she would be thinking of her pet budgie Joe who will be lodging with a friend. “I shall miss him no doubt,” she said.