This is a very special resident story, as Mavis is celebrating her 100th Birthday this
month! Born on 5th July 1919, Mavis has been in Central Queensland her whole life.
She grew up on a cattle property called Glenelgin, near Duaringa. Mavis had a very authentic country childhood. She used to play tennis on a dirt court, swim and fish in the property dam and get up to mischief with her younger brother. Her father used to grow all of their vegetables on the property and Mavis can
remember him having to cart water for the gardens for kilometres.
She was home schooled, as the closest school was 70 miles away. Getting anywhere was a long-haul trip 100 years ago; she remembers travelling to
Rockhampton and having to camp on the side of the road as the trip was so long.
“I’d go to dances in town and we’d have to camp on the side of the road while we
travelled there, the horse and buggy was all we had back then.”
Mavis stayed on the property all of her life, it is even where she met her husband, George. They eventually bought the property off Mr Officer, where they
lived for 50 years. Mavis had two children, Yvonne and Mervyn. She was the
epitome of a country mother working her whole life – she would bake bread, milk the cows, and even home schooled her children, until they got a governess.
It wasn’t until her husband fell ill that they eventually moved in to Rockhampton – which she hated – Mavis was and is a country girl at heart. Sadly, her husband passed away, but Mavis didn’t stop living her life to the fullest. She made up for her years of hard work by travelling in her 80’s to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney,
Singapore, Tasmania, New Zealand and Islands of Noumea, Norfolk Island, the
Northern Territory, up north to the Daintree Rainforest and as far as Cooktown.
She loved to travel but not as much as she loved her garden. Yvonne, her daughter, remembers all her friends telling her, “they would always see Mavis out
in the yard gardening.” “She would wake up at 5am and be straight out tending
to all her flowers, it was an absolutely beautiful garden.”
Mavis has lived at Benevolent since 2017 and is a social butterfly. She attends almost every activity, but her favourite is cards and morning tea where she has her regular table.
From everyone at Benevolent Living, we wish Mavis a very Happy 100th Birthday!
