If there’s one thing Betty Smith believes about herself, it’s the fact that “I’ve always been a very practical person and done things”.
“I aimed to bring my children up the same way, actually – being practical and doing whatever needs to be done,” Betty told The Profile.
It’s a philosophy that has guided Betty through to a monumental milestone as she prepares to celebrate her 100th birthday on February 6 with all her family.
“Thankfully, I’ve still got all my marbles, or most of them. Not all of them, but most of them,” the centenarian said.
“Family from everywhere” were set to attend Betty’s celebration including her five children, 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
“The management here [at Richmond Villas] is very kindly allowing us to use the dining room. So we’re having a family lunch and then everyone, everyone in the whole place was invited to come to afternoon tea.”
Betty was born on February 6, 1926, at Wharewhitu private hospital in Dannevirke, and brought up on a small dairy farm in Maharahara with her mother and two older sisters.
As a child Betty said she helped her mother with various tasks such as spreading fertilizer, or if there was fencing to do “we would do it together”.
There was no denying the sharpness of Betty Smith’s memory.
Betty recalls the start of her nursing training at Hastings Memorial Hospital, towards the end of World War II on March 8, 1944.
“It’s funny, isn’t it, how things stick in your mind?”
Nursing was something she said she wanted to do “all my life, right from the start” – and after she completed four years of nursing at Hastings Hospital, Betty married Reg Smith in 1948.
The couple moved to Hamilton and had five children: Anne, Rex, Terry, Penny and Trish.
“They’re a great family. I am extremely lucky because we all get on very well. They’re all such nice, good, hard-working, decent people.”
Betty said she and Reg parted around 46 years ago.
She worked as a theatre nurse part-time at Waikato Hospital from the time her youngest child was six years old, and once she grew up Betty said she went back to full-time work at the hospital for a 22-year stint.
Betty’s son Rex, who now took care of her, told The Profile she was a very competent knitter who could knit and read at the same time.
Before Betty’s eyesight worsened, she would read six or seven books a week, but now she was only able to manage one or two, she said.
But Betty still makes it out and about to places with the help of Rex.
“Rex looks after me all the time now here. He is absolutely tremendous. He takes me everywhere, takes me to the doctor, takes me to the library, does my shopping for me.”
Rex said it was “gratifying” to know that his mum would celebrate 100 years of life.
“It sort of makes you feel, well, maybe I’ve got a chance too.”
The secret to her long life boiled down to “longevity genes”, Betty said.
Her mother lived until she was 99 years old, and her brothers lived until they were 86 and 94.
“And we’re very active, very active people. My sisters were too. We played sport when we were younger. We always worked and we always did things, you know? So none of us were a family that sat around.”
Betty’s advice for people was to “keep active”.
She still goes for walks around her home but only when the weather’s nice, she said.
In her younger years, Betty played in the Hawke’s Bay representative hockey team, and once again for the Waikato Hockey team, where she became the captain.
“It’s been a bit of a busy sort of life, I suppose, in lots of ways, but it’s been a very ordinary life.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
