IT WAS joy all round as well-known Whittlesea local Joyce Downie celebrated her 100th birthday with her extended family and friends.
The icing on the cake was the big surprise party organised by her family to mark the milestone at her beloved Whittlesea Bowling Club on Sunday.
Still living independently in Whittlesea, the secret of Mrs Downie’s rich long life is her devotion to her close-knit family, staying active with community work and having lifetime hobbies, and a good social circle playing bowls.
Mrs Downie has had a rich imprint on the Whittlesea community. She has been an integral part of Whittlesea Agricultural Society.
She has been an active member of the Whittlesea Bowling Club, walking and garden groups, Probus Club, church choir, arranging flowers for church, and a life member of the Whittlesea Agricultural Society, working in the needlework section.
Named Erica Joyce Downie, she was born in Croydon and moved to a farm on the outskirts of Whittlesea after her marriage to Jack Downie in 1946. They shifted to Whittlesea in 1993 due to Jack’s illness. He died in 1998.
About her long life, Mrs Downie is happy to share the secret: “Living on a farm (on the outskirts of Whittlesea) with plenty of fresh air and sunshine, eating fresh home-grown meat and vegetables.
“I always kept very active on the farm helping my husband with day-to-day chores, milking, fencing, chopping wood, gardening and caring for the children.”
About her likes and hobbies, she singles out gardening and floral arrangements, sewing and knitting, making all her children’s clothes, even their underwear, and playing lawn bowls.
About the big changes she has seen over the years, Mrs Downie singles out her father delivering bread in a horse and cart. She also recalls trips on a steam train from her previous home in Preston to Whittlesea, chopping wood to heat water in a copper pot for bathing and washing clothes and dishes.
She lived without power on the farm on Whittlesea outskirts for 14 years until the area had electricity in 1960.
Mrs Downie also has vivid memories of ironing her family members’ clothes with a flat iron, heated up on top of a wood stove. She used ration coupons to purchase material to make her wedding dress.
A life full of hard work, with the Downies living on a farm on the Whittlesea outskirts, she started milking eight cows by hand and built the herd up over the years. She later milked 40 cows with milking machines.
“Selling cream was our main source of income. Our income was also supplemented with the running of sheep and pigs.
Before her marriage, she worked as a dressmaker and got married at 20 years old. Her first child, Tricia, was born in 1947.
Mrs Downie has four children – Tricia Pritchard, Rhonda Austin. who now lives in Colorado, USA, John Downie and Linda Apap. She has nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
Mrs Downie never tires of sharing her favourite life maxim with all people she knows: “Always be kind to others”.
All staff at North Central Review and Whittlesea Review join all family and friends, saying: Happy birthday Joyce.