Royal blood might not flow through Edna Veitch’s veins but she was treated like a queen for a day when she celebrated her 100th birthday last week.
The centenarian marked the milestone last Wednesday with her friends and family in Ballan.
Edna was born in Smokeytown, outside of Creswick, and was the daughter of farmers William and Elizabeth Veitch.
Long life runs in the Veitch family, one of Edna’s sisters lived to 101.
She says her childhood growing up in rural Victoria was no easy ride.
“If you needed a shower, you would jump in the dam,” Edna says.
She says that times were tough before World War II and the only work she could get was domestic work until 1938 when her sister Isobel landed a job in the Godfrey Hirst mill in Geelong.
“They said they would take me on if my sister taught me to weave and she did,” Edna says.
“Everyone thinks Godfrey Hirst makes carpets, but during the war they did military orders.”
Edna worked at the mill for 17 years but eventually moved home.
She spent another 21 years as a domestic worker in the Queen Elizabeth Home in Ballarat until she retired.
Although Edna never married, she says she has a “tonne of nieces” to love.
