While you can argue sex, drugs and alcohol are the key to a happy life, Rosa Marshall says sleep, prescription medicines and lots of good wine are the key to ‘‘a long life’’.
Unfortunately, because of her age, there was not a lot of her wine from her native Austria on offer during her 100th birthday celebrations at the Birchleigh Residential Care Centre, in Mosgiel, at the weekend.
On Sunday, she proclaimed with her thick, syrupy Austrian accent: ‘‘I’ve surprised myself that I got so old’’.
‘‘Everything comes naturally. And the good care from the staff at Birchleigh also helps,’’ she said.
Mrs Marshall was born in Vienna, Austria and recalled the horrors of her late teens when the Nazis and the Russian Army rolled through the country during World War 2.
‘‘I stayed in Austria all during the war. And it wasn’t very good with the Russians.
‘‘When they came through to invade Germany, they came creeping, creeping.’’
Following the war, she emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand.
Soon after, she and her late husband Brian moved to Dunedin, where she worked at the Wardell Brothers and Co grocery store, in George St, for many years.
The couple had two sons, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren — many of whom attended her birthday celebrations on Sunday and helped her eat the giant birthday cake.
Mrs Marshall said she had a wonderful day and was looking forward to doing it all again next