By ALENA HIGGINS
“Good, clean living, no smoking and definitely no drinking” is what the son of the region’s oldest woman puts her longevity down to.
David Lee’s mother Phyllis (nee Naylor) celebrated her 107th birthday in Stanthorpe on 3 November, surrounded by family and friends.
Mr Lee said his mother drove a car until she was 88 and played table-tennis until she the ripe old age of 105.
The amazingly resilient woman has lived in a nursing home for less than 10 years and had never taken any medication until a fall just recently, “which didn’t really set her back much”, Mr Lee said.
“She seemed to bounce back out of that and they put her on some pain killers but up until then she had never taken any medication so maybe that contributes to her longevity.”
Born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, the mother-of-five was just two years old when she came to Australia.
The family lived in many places including Brisbane, Gympie, Mungallala and Toowoomba before her father bought an orchard at Applethorpe from a local dentist in Stanthorpe in 1919 and she has stayed there ever since.
Her husband Wesley passed away in 1982 and Mrs Lee has been a resident at ‘Carramar’ for nine and a half years.
Letters of congratulations were received from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Governor-General of Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman, as well as Federal and State Government representatives Bruce Scott and Lawrence Springborg.
