\u201cHe could build anything,\u201d Betty said.<\/p>\n
Betty Gilgen and her father, Harry Pennell. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Her nomadic upbringing was why she could be fiercely independent, Phil said.<\/p>\n
She inherited her passion for construction, water and textiles from Pop.<\/p>\n
Phil said Betty had \u201cPop\u2019s engineer\u2019s eye for detail\u201d and \u201cmonitored the Bayfair bridge pile progress\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNZTA should be reassured by her approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome mothers like tea and scones on outings, Betty enjoys watching the 50-tonne HEB gantries moving bridge beams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phil said Betty particularly liked elegant bridges, and enjoyed jumping up and down on the McLaren Falls pedestrian bridge.<\/p>\n
Not only was Betty fascinated with bridges, but she also enjoyed swimming. <\/p>\n
Her Pop always told her, \u201cIf you fall in the river, let the current take you. Don\u2019t fight it\u201d. <\/p>\n
Betty Gilgen as a baby. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Her primary school pool was a nearby river. The school had to put a fence around the river to stop water babies like Betty from going for a dip or being swept away.<\/p>\n
Betty also had \u201cextremely good sewing and millinery skills,\u201d spinning possum, alpaca, and mohair wool into garments, rugs, and blankets.<\/p>\n
During World War II, Betty hand-sewed pockets onto officers\u2019 uniforms. <\/p>\n
She continued working in textiles through the 1950s. From the 1960s onwards, she worked in plant nurseries until she retired about 60. <\/p>\n
She belonged to Creative Fibre, a New Zealand organisation for fibre crafts and textile arts, and attended nearly every annual conference until about 12 years ago.<\/p>\n
Phil said she was also an excellent cook who \u201cproduced everything perfectly and all ready at the same time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer shortbread was legendary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Betty Gilgen on a motorbike in 2019, aged 93. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Betty\u2019s travels led her to Auckland, where she married architect Peter Kidson in 1947.<\/p>\n
Phil was the first child, born in 1948. Suzanne followed in 1952, then came Mary in 1956, who was born shortly before Peter\u2019s death the same year. <\/p>\n
Betty remarried in 1958 to Swiss immigrant and horticulturist Ernst Gilgen, who died in 2005. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a second father to us,\u201d Phil said. <\/p>\n
Ernst and Betty tramped all around New Zealand together.<\/p>\n
Betty and Ernst Gilgen. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Betty moved from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty in 2020 to be closer to family when she had bowel surgery and, when someone remarked \u201cthe good Lord wasn\u2019t ready for you\u201d, Betty retorted \u201cNo, the other bloke\u201d.<\/p>\n
Betty had 18 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren to carry on her legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s five generations,\u201d Phil said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be six generations by her next 100th birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe could build anything,\u201d Betty said. Betty Gilgen and her father, Harry Pennell. Photo \/ Supplied Her nomadic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[115924,9526,153037,6325,3944,9632,111442,4480,97190,1888,153038,153039,22638,111,43,139,69,21037,312,1961,27627,4767,102,1530],"class_list":["post-269887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-100th","tag-another","tag-betty","tag-birthday","tag-car","tag-celebrates","tag-centenarian","tag-drive","tag-elizabeth","tag-first","tag-gilgen","tag-gilgens","tag-marks","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phil","tag-says","tag-this","tag-vintage","tag-weekend","tag-with","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269887","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=269887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}