\u201cIt\u2019s pretty neat,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAileen always liked gardening, she kept a nice garden back when she was living in the village.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arvida Olive Tree retirement community manager Nathan McShane said the gardening team had done an \u201camazing job\u201d revamping the Aileen Kars Garden over the past three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe garden\u2019s beautiful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a really lovely setting that Aileen enjoys, and so do all of our other residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
The space features a \u201cmagnificent\u201d magnolia tree alongside rhododendrons and hydrangeas.<\/p>\n
Benches have also been installed for residents and their families to enjoy the tranquillity of the space.<\/p>\n
Aileen Kars with her long-time friend Jan Cook at the Arvida Olive Tree retirement community in Palmerston North.<\/p>\n
Cook, 83, said while Kars\u2019 memory had begun to fade, her warm nature remained.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s like a mum to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s always got a nice thing to say about people.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just loves having the family all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the secret to reaching 113, Kars has offered a few tips.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe always said when you cook your vegetables, don\u2019t waste the water,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
Carrot water was particularly important, while Kars credited Johnson\u2019s Baby Oil as the secret behind her remarkably smooth skin.<\/p>\n
But Cook suspected there was no great formula for her friend\u2019s longevity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that she really knows. Her heart just never stopped beating.\u201d<\/p>\n
A musical celebration was planned for Kars today, with about 20 family members and friends expected to gather for afternoon tea with Manawat\u016b maestro Ian Farmer booked to serenade guests.<\/p>\n
Cook said music had long been part of Kars\u2019 life, with the former dancer winning cups and medals in her younger years.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s just a beautiful soul,\u201d McShane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously 113 is such a milestone and we feel very privileged to play just a small part in the celebrations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s pretty neat,\u201d Cook said. \u201cAileen always liked gardening, she kept a nice garden back when she was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[294423,87029,9526,6325,110480,8608,8456,8589,1364,7568,78,52051,194,424,10136,117,111,43,139,69,34962,4056,6921,32951,102,2963],"class_list":["post-597517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-294423","tag-aileen","tag-another","tag-birthday","tag-blooms","tag-comes","tag-fresh","tag-garden","tag-her","tag-honour","tag-in","tag-kars","tag-kiwi","tag-life","tag-named","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oldest","tag-person","tag-spring","tag-turns","tag-with","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597517","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=597517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}