BELMONT resident Christina Rodgers has some simple advice for living a long life: it’s all about doing the things you want to do when you want to do them, and having a beer or two.
“That might have preserved my body a bit,” Christina said.
Born in 1917 in Cessnock, NSW, Mrs Rogers will be having a gathering with all her family and friends at the Belmont RSL on April 8 to celebrate her 100th birthday.
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READ NOWMrs Rodgers is the youngest of 10 children and grew up with her siblings and father in country NSW after her mother died in childbirth.
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She came to WA in November 1939 by train – five trains, to be precise, as the rail gauges were all different at the time.
Mrs Rodgers took on a position as a cook at the Harvey Hospital after spotting it in the newspaper.
It was in Harvey that she met her husband Albert, who worked as a linesman for the Postmaster-General, and the pair married in April 1942.
They had two sons, Alan and Gregory.
Mrs Rodgers said she had a lot of good memories from her 100 years – from friends made in Harvey in 1953, who she is still in contact with, to playing tennis, netball, teaching herself dressmaking, and dabbling in cake decorating and millinery.
She took up jigsaw puzzles in her later years and joined the Belmont RSL in 1991, getting involved with the women’s auxiliary.
Mrs Rodgers is set to celebrate her centenary in style.
Great-nieces and nephews, her sons and their families, and a cavalcade of friends will join her for her milestone birthday party, with attendees flying in from across the country.