Sybil, from Eileen Mary Masonic Village, turns 100 on Thursday.<\/p>\n
She started life in Matamau near Dannevirke, on her parents\u2019 small dairy farm. <\/p>\n
\u201cLife was simple, uncomplicated, and relied on the co-operation of family and community working together,\u201d McClean said.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Me time\u2019 didn\u2019t exist. There were no shirkers, no one was entitled, all had a job to do, things got done \u2013 and you didn\u2019t hold a grudge,” McClean explained. <\/p>\n
Sybil attended primary school in Matamau and secondary school at Dannevirke High School.<\/p>\n
She later went on to work in the Union Bank in Dannevirke and was one of three women who were the first to ever work at the bank. <\/p>\n
Sybil pictured with husband Jim at the Dannevirke A&P show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe years that followed were highlighted by a very happy marriage to Jim, sharing vision and teamwork to build a farm and family at Awariki.\u201d <\/p>\n
They had four children and were later grandparents of 13 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren. <\/p>\n
Tragedy struck in 1971 when Jim died following a tractor accident.<\/p>\n
McClean said she never remarried, with her family putting it down to him being \u201cthe love of her life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe carried on, never gave up and still continues to encourage and support her family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked her key to longevity, Sybil said she valued good relationships with friends and family, a strong faith and an appreciation of the simple things.<\/p>\n
She witnessed great moments of progress for the district, including the introduction of independent telephone lines. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo more party lines, having to ask if someone was working … or remembering to ring off when a conversation was finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said phone lines became clearer too, and it was no longer a toll call to \u201cthe coast\u201d to her sister in nearby Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
The centenarian also witnessed the upgrading of country roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo farewell the dust from a metal road in the summer was a celebration.\u201d <\/p>\n
In another anecdote shared by McClean, Sybil and Jim twice provided a place of board for single school teachers, as was the responsibility of a farming family in each rural school district. <\/p>\n
She said the chatter among parents was often around who the eligible farming bachelor was.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould he be match-made with the teacher \u2013 an original version of Farmer Wants A Wife?\u201d <\/p>\n
Both of their boarders married local farmers.<\/p>\n
Sybil planned to mark her 100th with four different celebrations. <\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sybil, from Eileen Mary Masonic Village, turns 100 on Thursday. She started life in Matamau near Dannevirke, on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[115924,836,6325,9632,37251,83626,661,22643,9088,111,43,139,7805,69,119072,119073,19791,1354],"class_list":["post-190304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-100th","tag-836","tag-birthday","tag-celebrates","tag-dannevirke","tag-dannevirkes","tag-major","tag-marked","tag-milestones","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-shirkers","tag-sybil","tag-ward","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}