100 in quarantine

It may not have been the 100th birthday celebration that Orewa rest home resident Veda Young was expecting, but that didn’t stop it from being a very special day.

Veda’s room at Evelyn Page was decorated with balloons and bunting, and she received three chocolate cakes, flowers and a framed collage of photos.

Her daughter Judy Marshall, who also lives at the home, celebrated the occasion from outside the window, singing to her mum with a microphone.

“Even though we live in the same village, lockdown restrictions have meant care centre residents haven’t been allowed visitors for weeks,” Judy says.

It also meant Veda had to speak to the rest of the family including daughter Marlene via Zoom, since their plans to visit from Australia were cancelled.

While a little overwhelmed with the fuss being made, Veda showed her trademark sense of humour when it came to the standard questions being asked of a newly-turned centenarian.

When asked, ‘How does it feel to be 100?’, she said she hadn’t been there long enough to know.

She thanked her family and the retirement home staff for the celebrations. She also received cards from the Queen, the Governor General, Rodney MP Mark Mitchell and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.

Judy says her mum is made of strong stuff and has been blessed with great health. A rare hospital visit a few years ago confounded the medical staff as there was no record of her in the system.

“She didn’t even have a number! Her motto is, ‘It’s a great life if you don’t weaken’,” Judy says. “She’s incredible.”

Born on 10 May 1920, Veda grew up in Broadwood, in the Hokianga region, where her parents owned a small dairy farm. Life was pretty idyllic, riding her horse, learning the piano and going to school.

However, fortunes turned when she was 14 after her mother died. Veda left school to help her father by keeping house, washing, cooking and helping to milk the cows.

She later trained as a nurse aid at Lewisham Hospital in Wellington and worked as a nanny before marrying Des in 1940.

After Des returned from serving in WWII, where he had been taken prisoner by the Germans, the couple had three daughters and raised them on a farm in Broadwood.

They moved to Auckland in 1954, but Des died five years later having suffered several strokes, and Veda was left a widow at just 39.

She lived in the same house in Blockhouse Bay for 61 years before moving into a rest home near Judy’s house in 2015.

Judy fondly remembers her mother would get a loan of a caravan and take her and her sisters to Orewa for holidays when they were teenagers and it was those memories that influenced the decision to move into Evelyn Page.

Judy said the lockdown period had been hard on both of them and she was excited to finally be able to visit her mother in person in Level 2.

“Being Mum she tries to be strong and if I can phone her twice a day and make her feel good or I can make her laugh I feel better, but last night she’d just about had enough.

“Being able to make contact today will make the world of difference to her, and to me!”