SEVEN hundred and six years, 8472 months, 36,837 weeks, 257,861 days, more than six million hours.
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That’s the combined lifespan of seven centenarian women living at Yackandandah Health.
On Saturday Lorna Anderson, 100, joined an exclusive sisterhood that also includes Ada Maddock, 105, Elizabeth Gray, 101, Lila Govett, 100, Emily Adams, 100, Hazel Fox, 100, and Monica Goonan, 100.
None of them know the reason for their longevity but their positivity and love of life is something they all have in common.
Between them they’ve lived a life of immense variety; Ms Fox owns a square-metre of land in Scotland and only stopped driving five months ago; Mrs Govett married a prisoner of war, Ms Adams scored a hole-in-one on the Yackandandah golf course and was club champion six times and Mrs Goonan went on African safari aged 80.
Ms Fox, born in Tumbarumba, said she was amazed by how the world around her changed.
“When we were kids we were running around paddocks, riding horses and setting rabbit traps,” she said.
“We didn’t have electricity or telephones.
“Now there are computers and I refuse to have a mobile phone.”
However Mrs Anderson, born in Albury, said the technology was wonderful.
“You can send messages overseas and I always wonder how they get over there,” she said.
Mrs Anderson is a die-hard Richmond Tigers fan and nothing topped the 100th birthday card she received, signed by all the players.
Yackandandah Health chief executive Annette Nuck said reaching 100 was once a rarity.
“To have seven here at the same time is quite extraordinary,” she said.
“They are all rural and local women who have grown up with fresh air and real food and they have always worked and kept themselves busy.”