‘‘I don’t have a clue, darling.’’
Isabelle Burgess-Matthews turns 104 years today and yesterday her family organised a tea party to mark the date at Vickery Court rest-home, where now she lives.
She was overwhelmed with the kind gesture.
‘‘It is really nice to have so many friends and family here. I’m feeling very loved.’’
She admitted the date was quite emotional to her.
‘‘At the same time I’m celebrating my birthday, it reminds me of the family members who are no longer around.’’
However, she said she preferred to be positive and focus on the younger generations, who bring a lot of happiness to her life.
“I have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren to keep me young.”
A smile adds more creases to her face as she talks about her time as a nurse in the former Kew Hospital and her days at her family’s farm.
Mrs Burgess-Matthews still remembers going from Spar Bush to Invercargill with her grandparents in their gig drawn by one horse.
In winter, she needed to wear her gumboots and her father had to clear tracks so she could go to school.
“What’s changed? Too many things — I think everything changed.”
Her advice for the younger generation was to be thoughtful of others, be positive, “and just keep going”.
