Meet the South Shields family with five living generations ranging from two to 90-years-old
A South Shields family has revealed what it is like having five living generations.
The Sleightholme family, from South Shields, has five living generations ranging from the age of two-years-old all the way up to 90.
The family generations stem down from 90-year-old great-great grandad, Noel, to 65-year-old great grandad Geoff, to grandmother Lea-anne, 43, then to Lea-anne’s 23-year-old daughter Bobbi Pape and finally to two-year-old Lyla Charlton.
Noel, who was married to his wife Violet from 1952 until she passed away in 2003, has a total of 11 children, 32 grandchildren, 47 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.
Lea-anne has explained to the Shields Gazette what it is like having five generations of the same family still alive.
She said: “It’s rare thing to have this many generations still living but it is just lovely for all of us, especially when you see things like my grandad Noel dancing with my granddaughter Lyla.
“Given that it’s not something that you often see, people are usually quite surprised when they find out that we do still have five living generations.
“It is an amazing thing, especially when you look at Lyla with my grandad but there is an element of sadness as she will most likely be his last grandchild.
“But despite there being so many of us, we are all really close as a family and we try and see each other as much as possible.
“There are always family members visiting my grandad every day so it is great to see them as much as we do - I tend to see my aunties and uncles quite often.
“We’re just a very close knit family.”