AT 105, Hazel Fox has learnt plenty and knows a few secrets, but not how she reached such a grand age.
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"If I knew I'd sell it and be a millionaire now instead of broke," the great great grandmother said on Sunday.
Mrs Fox was speaking at her birthday party, which drew more than 50 people to the Sevens bistro at Albury's Commercial Club.
Among them was her only child Lesley Baker, 77, who has some ideas about why her mother's life has extended from the time of World War I to the digital age.
"She's eaten her vegies and she's mad on avocados and she always has a plan for the next day," Mrs Baker said.
"She's very positive thinking."
Mrs Fox, who knocked over a two-kilometre walk in the Mother's Day Classic at the age of 100, was surprised to hit 105, which she will do officially on Monday.
"I think it's a miracle, I didn't think I was going to make it," she said.
"I've had a few problems; I've had a few falls and been knocking myself about and I've had a hip replacement."
Nevertheless, Mrs Fox demonstrated a sharp memory yesterday as she told of landmarks near Tumbarumba as she eyed a photograph of her childhood farm.
She also lapped up the attention of little great granddaughters and keenly inspected mobile phone snaps taken of her with relatives.
Early life for Mrs Fox was at the family farm Hickory Grove, which her father had moved to after being advised to head to the mountains of Tumbarumba because of his asthma.
The second youngest of six children, she rode a horse to school and at one stage lost her bag in a blackberry bush.
I think it's a miracle, I didn't think I was going to make it.
- Hazel Fox on being 105
After leaving school at 16, Mrs Fox spent 40 years doing babysitting in a career which began with two years in France as a nanny.
She also worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tasmania and New Zealand.
Though she does not have a mobile phone, the four times around-the-world traveller enjoys some modern technology.
"I fiddle with the computer playing jigsaw puzzles and solitaire," Mrs Fox said.
While her nephew Lance Whitehead already anticipates a 106th birthday party, Mrs Fox had a more cautious view.
"I haven't got any plans for the future because it's hard going," she said.