Dressed in a beautiful blue frock, Mrs Jones was ready to party yesterday at Alblas Hostel to celebrate her magic milestone with family and friends.

Although her sight has gone and her hearing impaired, Mrs Jones is bright as a button in every other aspect, only having moved into Alblas in August last year.

Up until then, she had lived independently at her Kitchener St home, in later years having Meals on Wheels and some assistance from McLean Care.

Most days, she said, she goes down to the dining room to enjoy meals with the other residents of Alblas.

Born at Spring Grove, Spring Ridge, on March 25, 1910, Mrs Jones came about the middle order of her eight siblings, all of whom have now passed away.

“I’m the last one. My brothers and sisters all lived well into their 80s and 90s,” Mrs Jones said.

Married and widowed twice, her first husband, William Arnold, died when he was just 38, leaving his young wife to raise four small children – Ruth, Gordon, Jan and Doug – on her own.

“You just learn to manage in a situation like that,” Mrs Jones said.

Ten years after her first husband’s death, she remarried Darcy Jones and moved to Tamworth from Werris Creek, about 1953. Mr Jones passed away 45 years ago.

After all those years on her own, when The Leader asked if she had a boyfriend, Mrs Jones smiled and said: “I’ve got several, but don’t tell the children.”

Throughout her life she’s never been afraid of hard yakka, working on sheep and cattle stations as a housemaid and cook, and looking after small children and older people at various times. 

Mrs Jones puts down her longevity to a life of acceptance and worrying as little as possible.

“If I worried about every little thing, I’d get sick, and I don’t want to be. I enjoy quite good health,” she said.

“I think accepting everything as it comes and not worrying too much has helped me live this long – that and clean living.”

Her eldest daughter, Ruth, predeceased her. Eldest son Gordon and his wife came to Tamworth from Tweed Heads to share their mum’s special day, along with daughter Jan and her husband.

Doug, her youngest son, who lives at Manilla, couldn’t be there, but his son was coming in to spend some time with nan yesterday afternoon.

In fact, Mrs Jones has a special relationship with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who all come to visit their much-loved nan.

Nephew Rex Squires was one of the well-wishers at the luncheon yesterday, bringing along a quince pie he’d made especially for the birthday girl.

“I promised her I’d make her a quince pie, which is her favourite, if she lived till 100,” Mr Squires said.

“I’ve made six so far and I’m looking forward to the next one, as she is.”