A long and individual life valued
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Born: December 17, 1901.
Died: February 27, 2012.
Funeral: Mount Carmel Village Chapel, March 5, 2012.
SHE was the Hunter’s oldest resident, an inspirational woman who showed her friends and family that getting old doesn’t mean you need to stop doing what you love.
Blanche Coward lived through two World Wars, the Great Depression and two Halley’s Comet sightings in her 110 years and 73 days.
She spent her final decade in the Mount Carmel Retirement Village in Maitland, and died on February 27, 2012.
Her nephew David Buckley said she was an inspiration to many people.
‘‘I think that part of the reason was that she showed that becoming old does not necessarily mean that you need to stop doing the things you like,’’ he said.
The family was very grateful to the staff and residents at Mount Carmel for encouraging them to hold Blanche’s funeral in the chapel.
‘‘It was the people at Mount Carmel, her friends and carers, who were the central part of her life for the past 10 years and we thought it was appropriate that we farewell her from there,’’ he said. ‘‘Aunty Blanche touched many people’s lives.’’
Blanche was born in England in 1901 and travelled by boat to Sydney in 1914.
She led an active and frugal life, worked hard, married late, in 1942, and was a widow by 1947.
Blanche started work at 14 as an apprentice milliner but spent much of her working life in cake shops. She retired from her work in retail about 50 years ago and in 1973 went into a retirement facility in Leichhardt with her sister, Eve.
She moved from Sydney to Maitland in 2001, just before her 100th birthday.
‘‘Blanche was my grandmother’s older sister,’’ David said. ‘‘She was already old when I was born and by the time I was grown up, she was really old – probably about my age now.
‘‘Then a funny thing happened, she never seemed to get any older and never really changed much over the next 45 years.
‘‘She looked the same, moved the same and had the same interests she always had.’’
David said being ‘‘old’’ had some funny effects on Blanche.
‘‘One example was that her concept of fashion and price got stuck in the 1950s and it became difficult to take her shopping for anything,’’ he said.
‘‘Over time most of the family became demoralised with the results but we were very grateful to her Mount Carmel friends and people from Legacy.’’
David said Blanche didn’t speak about it often but the family was aware she had a difficult life growing up.
‘‘Aunty Blanche didn’t talk to us about her feelings,’’ he said. ‘‘She was a positive person but described her early years as ‘hard’.
‘‘My generation cannot imagine the difficulties she had to deal with; in 1914 she was a young teenager in a foreign country, in 1915-1916 she was being raised in a single-parent house with four children, she had only a basic education before starting work, the Great Depression hit in 1929 and she married Charles in 1942.
‘‘Charles and Blanche were so poor that for a time they had to continue to board in their separate rooms.
‘‘Charles died from the effects of World War I in 1946 and Blanche had to work and care for him.
‘‘But I think life got a bit easier for her after that.’’
David said Blanche’s life experience helped create the generous, active, independent and determined woman that they knew.
‘‘She walked everywhere at a fast pace, ate small portions, hated waste and liked a glass of fruity white wine on special occasions,’’ he said.
‘‘When she formed a view on something it was very difficult to change it.
‘‘She loved chocolate but it needed to conform to a certain size and shape.’’
David said Blanche had an amazing memory and was able to recall what she was wearing and the weather when they steamed into Sydney Harbour and how she made the hats for her sister’s wedding in 1920.
Until three weeks before her death, Blanche was well aware of what was occurring in the world and what members of her family were up to.
Her family said the perseverance she showed in the face of long periods of adversity and poverty was inspirational.
David’s daughter, Hillary Milton, said that whenever she mentioned her age to strangers, it brought ‘‘incredulous surprise and curiosity and then, by association, we felt pretty special and lucky to have this lady in our family’’.
‘‘In thinking about Aunty Blanche’s amazing life and talking to family about their memories of her, there seemed to be some recurring themes of a sense of adventure and independence, a unique woman who was extraordinary for her generation and it got me thinking of how her passport, which she renewed for 10 years at the age of 90, was symbolic of Aunty Blanche’s spirit,’’ she said.
‘‘Inside there are stamps from trips she took up until the age of 95 including to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.’’
Hillary said Blanche would continue to influence her with a few simple but important principles.
‘‘Life is too short not to have second helpings of dessert, never buy scratchies in a run as you never get a winner, but most importantly, live in the moment and appreciate the here and now.’’