Clarice May celebrated her 100th birthday at her Frankton home on Tuesday - surrounded by family and friends from as far afield as Feilding and Christchurch - with a letter from the Queen and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arriving right on time.
Born in Naseby, Mrs May (nee Arthur) was the youngest of three children, and the only girl, born to Thomas and Mary Arthur.
She moved with her family to Dunedin when she was about 4 years old, later attending Andersons Bay School, before her high school education at Otago Girls’ High School.
After leaving school, Mrs May headed north, to Napier, for nursing training.
With her trademark twinkle in her eye, she said ‘‘I got suspended once. For smoking.’’
Mrs May later moved back south, to Ranfurly, where she was nursing, when she decided to attend the ‘‘national ball’’ in Invercargill.
That night she met Bill May, a ‘‘lovely, kind-hearted person’’, who farmed at Mayfield, Winton. The farm has now been in the May family for about 150 years.
The pair married in 1945, when Mrs May was 24, at the Andersons Bay Church and then moved to the Winton farm.
She traded nursing for raising their five children, Bill, now of Oturehua, Elizabeth Kerslake, of Queenstown, Tommy — who is now running Mayfield — Mary-Jane Taylor, of Feilding, and Sally Doherty, of Christchurch.
Mrs May said she dropped her cigarette habit when she was 41 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, becoming one of the first in New Zealand to have a colostomy bag, and then set about supporting others in her position.
She had assisted, by her count, upward of 300 people who had received a cancer diagnosis, and received a QSM in 1980 for her services to bowel cancer patients.
Son Bill said she would go to Kew Hospital, now Southland Hospital, and talk to nurses and people who had a colostomy about what to look for and how to handle it.
She also opened her home to unwed pregnant women in the days that was not socially acceptable, providing them with a safe place to stay until they delivered their children.
The couple moved to Queenstown in the early 1980s, a year before now-mayor Jim Boult and his wife, Karen, moved in next door.
Mr Boult recalled going to visit Mrs May when she was ‘‘well in her 90s’’ and when he asked what she had been doing, she replied ‘‘making food for old people’’.
Still living independently, the grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of about 25 said she had enjoyed ‘‘wonderful health’’ most of her life, but lost her hearing and much of her sight two years ago — the former issue was fixed last Friday when she received a set of hearing aids, meaning she would not miss a trick any more.
On reaching 100, Mrs May said ‘‘it’s wonderful’’.
‘‘I didn’t ever think I would reach it.’’
And when asked what her secret is, her advice was simple.
‘‘Be happy.
‘‘Enjoy your neighbours.’’
