‘No secret’ to 100 years

“There’s no secret, just carry on from day to day, as long as you’re able.”

Rebecca [Isa] Demmocks became Richmond’s new centenarian on 5 February, and celebrated the milestone with a fruit cake, friends, her nephews and nieces, and her great nephews and nieces.

Born in Methven in 1924, only child Isa spent her youth frolicking at the family dairy farm before moving to Sefton in the mid-30s.

She left school at about 15, and began work as a housemaid at a local farmhouse.

In the 1950s, she married her World War II soldier husband Ted, who was 15 years her senior, and the couple settled on a Murchison dairy farm where Isa supported her husband with the farm chores and upkeeping the house.

“We also had a sawmill in Murchison run by another friend, and Ted helped with the milling,” she says.

“Afterwards, when we sold the farmland, he worked a bulldozer for the council.”

Isa says she and Ted moved to Richmond in 1972, where she worked at a Belgrove hop farm and a local apple packhouse.

After Ted passed away in the mid-80s, Isa continued to dwell at the same Richmond household where she still lives today, and spends her days as a committed knitter and gardener.

She says there’s “no secret” to her longevity.

“Just carry on from day to day, as long as you’re able,” she says.

Isa also received a 100th birthday card from King Charles III, and Governor-General, Dame Cindy Kiro.