A World War Two veteran living in Healesville is set to celebrate her centenary in style, spending the weekend with family and friends.
Marjorie Bradford lives at Estia Health in Healesville, close to her grandson Sid who she previously lived with, and where she can continue to tend to her potted garden outside or work on her crafts in her room.
Mrs Bradford said she never thought she’d make it to a hundred.
“But here I am, and I am looking forward to my birthday, I think it’s a good age to get to, but I’ve been very lucky I’ve had good health, which makes all the difference,” she said.
“I’ll have my family around me, your family is most important in life, I think there are quite a few of the girls that work here that have their day off and they’re coming in.”
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs shared that Mrs Bradford served in the Australian Army and achieved the rank of Private, serving in the Australian Women’s Army Service, based in Sydney.
Mrs Bradford said she didn’t do a whole lot, but they were there to look after the soldiers’ equipment.
“We had to make sure that it was perfect for them and send it off to them, they’d ship a load in that needed repairing, so we’d have to see to get all that repaired and fixed up and sent back to them,” she said.
“That’s about my bit with the service but it was probably important because they had to have the equipment perfect.
“I made very good friends in those services, it’s wrong to say but it was the best days of my life in those services.”
The war meant everyone chipping in to help however they could but there was also a sense of adventure, Mrs Bradford’s journey up to Sydney to serve was her first ever train trip.
Even such, Mrs Bradford said they would only get a few hours leave and if it was possible, she’d hop on that train and go back home to see her family.
“Even if it was only for a couple of hours, I went once and I was only there five hours or something but I had to get on the train to come back just to see everyone,” she said.
“We had a very sick mother, she suffered with bronchial asthma and was bedridden for 10 years with it and she just loved to see me so I made it my business to go back as often as I could to see them,”
“I had a sister who looked after her, she was a martyr too, she had a wonderful job, but I had a fairly easy run through there that if I wanted sick leave, they immediately gave it to you.”
Another source of happy memories in Sydney was meeting her future husband Jack at a Marrickville Town Hall Dance, pointing to a photo of him on the wall of her room.
Mrs Bradford said Jack was a very wonderful man and the grandchildren all loved him.
“After we met, I didn’t think we’d end up together but the next day we went over to Manly and had a day at Manly, which is aovely spot, very special,” she said.
“He lived at Millers Point, right on the waterfront there, it probably didn’t have a good name going back many years, there were lots of fights there, but not while I was there, that’s where I started my married life.
“From there we bought a house at Kingsgrove, when we retired we went to the Central Coast and bought a house there and then from there, I came to here, though I was with Sid for a couple of years.”
Before the war, Mrs Bradford worked as a dressmaker, becoming a housewife after marriage and the war and later worked as a lab technician at the University of NSW in Sydney.
Jack sadly died in 2014, though they had one son together, two grandsons and a granddaughter and now, great-grandchildren.
Mrs Bradford shared a few secrets to her longevity, and said the first was exercise.
“I played a lot of sports, played a lot of tennis, and then from tennis I went to bowls, my husband went to bowls, he said ‘Come and have a go’ and I couldn’t leave it alone, it’s so interesting, and it looks a silly game, but it’s not,” she said.
“None of my grandchildren have played tennis, which I’m a bit disappointed with, they’ve played it, but not like I played every week.
“I eat well, lots of fruit and veg and I always have a glass of chardonnay made by my grandson and that’s what makes it so special.”
Mrs Bradford will celebrate on Saturday 18 October with her loved ones, before her actual 100th birthday on Monday 20 October.
