100-years-young Joan Bamford of Raymond Terrace

The Maitland Mercury

Joan Bamford shares about her fun and adventure filled 100 years.

Transcript

00:00 I'm lucky because I've got good health. I don't take any medication. I'm lucky if I go to the doctor once a year.

00:07 Sometimes it's a couple of years. Sometimes I go that long they ring me up to see if I'm still here.

00:15 No, it's um, I've got the ability to adapt very quickly to any situation.

00:21 And I settled very quickly. Didn't have any trouble.

00:25 Your husband was working at Courtauld? Yeah. I went to work there in the time and motion section for a while

00:33 until I got the bonus going because I helped work on the bonus to get them an 80% bonus.

00:39 And that was interesting. And that's when I got involved in all the other things.

00:45 So all the sports and organising all that type of...

00:50 It was quite a... I think I used to do cricket scoring. I believe no other females had ever done it before then.

00:57 That was in 1953 and 4. If I see something, I don't let things beat me.

01:04 I'll stick at them until I work them. If I can't work them out, then I think, well, I'm not meant to.

01:10 That's how I look at it. Tell me again the story about the Tai Chi.

01:18 Oh, I just went to the park and I had joined in and I liked it.

01:23 So I joined a class. Within two lessons, I was beginning to take instructor's course and taught it for 11 years.

01:33 And I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I'd recommend it to anyone because it's the most relaxing thing.

01:38 I still do it occasionally now, not as much as I did because it was far too much.

01:44 But no, I've enjoyed it. I had lots of lovely students down in the terrace.

01:51 They were really nice. One time I had 25 students.

01:55 And those healing hands. Tell us about that.

02:00 Oh, it's something I didn't even know I had until then.

02:04 Somebody I'd done it for, he said, well, he said, I'll tell you something, my lady.

02:08 He said, you've got healing hands, but you said you've never developed it.

02:12 I said, that's because I didn't know I had it.

02:15 I met a lady in the shop down in the terrace. I didn't know if I had them.

02:19 I did a back while I was down there and she got up and walked.

02:23 I said, you know, I had to have a work stroller to come down. I can walk now without it.

02:30 So this other woman, she said, oh, she said, you probably work that out between the bus.

02:35 I said, I've never met her before. She said, well, just see if you can do me a favour.

02:40 And so I did her as well. And she had to apologise.

02:46 It's just, I just used to have fun, I think.

02:49 And I got a great, I get a great deal of pleasure when I see how much it heals.

02:54 I went on a trip with the war widows down to Moss Vale.

02:58 I did one lady one day. It's a terrible thing to do because the next day I had a queue waiting.

03:09 I would never hurt anyone. I treat other people as I'd like to be treated myself.

03:14 If I see somebody in need, I'll go to them and help them.

03:18 I will not kick a dog when it's down. I'll lift them up and help them.

03:22 And if anybody can help anybody at all, I'll just do it.

03:26 That's how I've always lived. I've had a happy life. I've never let anything worry me.

03:32 I'm a faithless. I believe in what's going to happen is happen, will happen.

03:36 No matter how you try, you won't change it because it's meant to be.

03:41 That's my look out on life.

03:43 Wonderful.

03:45 So you can't do much better, can you now?

03:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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