At 100, Thelma is doing very well.  She has a quick wit and likes a laugh, and you never know when you are about to benefit from either of them.  When we started talking, I asked Thelma about where she was born, she says, “I don't know where! I was told I was born in Repton.  I suppose it was a house. It wouldn't have been a hospital in those days, would it?”

I spoke to Thelma in her comfortable home in Goonellabah, where one of her sons, Jeffrey, lives with her (but was out the day of the interview). Her eldest son, John and his wife Barbara were with Thelma, as was her youngest son, Peter and his wife, Denise.

Thelma has an incredible memory for detail, and she adds flavour to the many events and moves that have made her life an interesting one.  Repton is just south of Coffs Harbour, and it wasn't long before she experienced her first move. 

(Baby Thelma)

“I probably would have been about four, I suppose, when Mum and Dad moved down to Herons Creek (South of Port Macquarie).  I started school in Herons Creek when I was six.”

Thelma’s childhood has many fond memories - she liked playing with her friends after school. She loved dressing up in her mother's dresses.  Thelma enjoyed reading sports books and collecting marbles as a hobby.  Her favourite Christmas present was a porcelain doll.

“Dad was a timber inspector, and he got moved from Herons Creek up to Woodenbong.  He got up there about 1934, I went to school for a couple of years in Woodenbong. I would have been about nine.

“Then he got moved to Sydney.  We were living in Bondi Junction. I went to Sydney when I was 16 or 17, and lived there until I got married.”

(Thelma in her late teens)

Thelma and her friends spent time in various parts of Sydney, enjoying various locations and events like dances. It was one night that they were off to a dance west of Sydney that Thelma met the man she would share her life with.

“Well, that was a good story. They all reckoned that we met at Luna Park, but we didn't. 

“I was out with a cousin of mine, we always used to go to the dances on the Saturday night. And this particular night, we were going out to Lidcombe Town Hall at a dance on Sunday night.  

“We were walking down George Street to catch a train out to Lidcombe, and who should be coming up the street when we were going down the street, three or four Air Force boys, and one happened to be an ex-boyfriend of my cousin.”

Frank was another of the Air Force boys.

(Frank in his Air Force uniform and Thelma)

“So we stopped and got introduced, blah, blah, blah, and all of that. But they didn't want to go to the dance. So we all decided that we should go to Luna Park, and that's how we finished up in Luna Park.”

Thelma has an uncanny ability to remember some details while others she speculates on.  When I asked her about Luna Park, she said, “I suppose it was fun. The funny thing that did happen was that my cousin finished up marrying her ex!”

There was something in the stars that night! Thelma admitted that there was an attraction but said Frank wasn’t a real romantic. She giggled and said, “Except he was patient!”

***

Frank got posted to Papua New Guinea and Thelma and Frank got engaged before he left for duty.

“When he came home from New Guinea, we got married. That was in 1946.

“I was 21 on the 31st of January, and we were married on the 16th of February. I was 21 and a little.”

(Thelma on her wedding day with her father, Bert)

Thelma worked her only paid job while she lived in Sydney.  Making uniforms for the armed forces.

“We were making overalls, things like that. I did the sewing; I wasn't cutting.”

The war didn’t affect Thelma in any other way.  Her brother had the most involvement, “My brother, Bert, was in the army. The Nationals. But he didn't go overseas or anything.  He wasn't in very long because he had flat feet!”

Frank was stationed at Papua New Guinea to build the aerodromes for the planes to land.  Thelma admits he didn’t speak much about what happened in Papua.  At least to her.

John mentioned a story that his father passed onto him, “He only ever spoke about it once. There were Japanese coming from wherever they were in the jungle. And there were a lot of big American fellas with the Australian fellas. Dad said they were all told to get out. 

“Thousands of Japanese were all coming towards them.  And Dad said, “Look, we just had to go because these blokes will run over the top here.”  He said that they didn't want to go, but they had been told to go anyway. 

“There were two of these Americans. They were injured, and there were Australian blokes looking after them, trying to carry them back. The two fellas made a decision and said, “While the army goes, we'll stay here and try and hold these fellas off.”

“The Aussies didn't want to let them stay. Dad said, these fellas, kicked up a stink and said to him, “If you don't go, we'll shoot ourselves here now”. So they just stayed there on their own.

“These Americans, they stopped the Japs coming forward, and it gave Dad and the others time. He said they got killed, but it delayed the Japanese enough for the Australians to get out. They sacrificed themselves. And Dad said no one ever talks about them - big heroes, basically.”

***

Frank and Thelma Riordan started their lives together by moving to Casino.  Their first son, John (who related the story above), was born in December of 1946.

“Frank came from Casino.  He built up our first house in Casino, in River Street.  Frank had done carpentry work and odd jobs around the town. We must have lived in Casino for 6 years.”

Their second child, Narelle, was born two years after John in December 1948. Three more children added to her family: Jeffrey, Kelvin and Peter.

“We bought a farm up at Old Bonalbo. We were only there for two floods, and then we got off the land - that was only a couple of years.

“We bought a block at South Casino in Division Street (at the time, pregnant with Peter), and Frank built another house there.  We lived there until we went into the Oxford Hotel. Peter was about three.

“We all moved into the hotel. I did go into the bar, but I wasn't a barmaid. My part in life was housekeeping and to look after kids.”

***

New technology brought with it the need for new talents, and Thelma was learning to drive in 1954.  Her sister, Iris, came to look after her young children while Iris’s husband, Don, took Thelma for a driving lesson.  

Thelma was determined, and out on the road, it got to the point that Thelma blocked out all instruction being offered by Don.  

As a result, they ran out of fuel at Old Bonalbo and had to walk back to get help.  Iris was left wondering what had happened while looking after four kids!

The lessons were learned well. At 100, Thelma still holds her driver's license!

I asked Thelma what it was like, to have a life of constant change, challenge, moving around and taking on different lifestyles.  Thelma replied, “It doesn't worry me. I'll go with the flow.”

The Oxford Hotel in Casino was their home for three years. Then, it was time for a sea change.

“We had a little cabin at Evans Head.  We stayed there until we kind of worked out what we were going to do.”

(Christmas in the 80s at Evans Head L-R Kelvin, Peter, Narelle, Frank, Thel, John, and Jeff)

On living in a cabin with five children, Thelma said her expectations didn’t exist - it was more about acceptance, “We just did it; we didn’t know anything different. It was a lovely little place.”

Thelma recalls that Frank thought there would be more work in Lismore, so that was the next move.  They rented a house from Harry Neilson. Harry was a successful local and developed much of East Lismore, and Frank started working with him. 

John describes Harry’s varied interests, “His main business was a music shop. Selling pianos and things, but he was an entrepreneur; he liked to own land. He used to build places - buy and sell.”

After looking around for a place of their own, they bought Harry’s house up on the hill, known as the Castle.

“Oh, it wasn’t a castle,” laughed Thelma, “but that's what people called it- it kind of looked like one.”

Denise asked, “It was very fancy at the time. Wasn’t it the first place with a swimming pool in Lismore?”

At that, Thelma chuckled again and said, “There was a swimming pool out the back, but it ended up full of oyster shells and beer bottles!”

John confirmed that it had been a pool before its “career change” and told us a little more about the house, “It was right up on the top of the hill in Nielson Street, near the high school. You can see right the way across Lismore.”

“It is still there,” Thelma said, “but they've built onto it and done a lot to it.”

Denise added that she believed it had become student accommodation. “It doesn't have the same charm.”

At that time, Thelma now had a stable place where she could rear her children and support Frank with more space than the cabin, and less hustle and bustle than the hotel.

(Thelma loved growing her own veggies)

Frank decided to take a break from building and went into the music industry himself.  But his focus was on the new wave of music being installed for entertainment - jukeboxes.  

Frank became partners with Jack Valentine, from Scone.

Peter explained, “ Dad had sold the pub and had a bit of money, and Jack must have asked the old man to come in with him, because this bloke used to travel from Muswellbrook. I can remember this because I used to go with the old man to deliver the jukeboxes.

“Jack travelled from Muswellbrook to Tweed Heads and all the way out West of Tamworth.  He went to all these hotels and cafes - they all wanted  jukeboxes, and it probably got too big for him, so he asked the old man, and went partners with him.”

That business only lasted a year or two before Frank brought his focus back to Lismore and construction.

“That's when he really started to build.”

John added, “He kicked off with a small crew, and then he gradually built the business and had a fair few blokes working for him. He built a lot of houses, and then went into a little bit of commercial and built the Italian Club and the Adventist Church there down from the hospital. 

“He built and owned an Arcade in Casino, near the old Commonwealth Hotel, and flats in Lismore.”

Thelma now had more time to pursue the things she enjoyed.

As a young woman, Thelma developed a love of playing tennis.

“I started playing tennis before I left school; I suppose I was 12 or 13.  And I remember wheeling the pram to tennis when I was pregnant.”

John volunteered the fact she was playing up until she was in Casino, and Denise asked about her being a champion. Thelma denied any great feats that she achieved and simply said, “ I loved tennis. I loved tennis.”

There was something there, and I asked her if she played competition. Thelma gave a drawn out “yeeesss…” I asked her if she was good at it, and she said, “Just forget about that!”

Then, with a coy smile that turned into a cheeky grin, she opened up.

“I played with Ces Penny. He was a good tennis player.”

Ces had a clothing shop in Lismore and was a national champion at tennis.  However, Thelma was content to leave it there, more happy to talk about her family and the successes she had at home.

Thelma’s love of tennis as a young woman was replaced with the joy of fishing as she got older and spent time at the seaside.

“We used to go fishing.  That's what you do when you're at the beach or on the water. When I was younger, we all went fishing.”

I asked Thelma what she enjoyed catching, “Anything that was silly enough to bite! It was like everything else, lucky to get a fish.”

Thelma most often fished with Frank but would also go with her sister.  Brim and a “Flatty” in the river were Thelma's favourite catches.

This passion for fishing was supported by a succession of beach houses.

For a time, the family had a holiday house at Iluka.  At that stage, John had married Barbara, and they had children of their own. Barbara recalls visiting them when the kids were young.

After Iluka, they bought another place in Evans Head. 

Frank’s successes allowed him to retire in his late 50’s, and the family took on another pastime. The next property was a farm at Rous.

“On the farm, we had mainly horses. I liked the horses but didn't ride.”

(Thelma with one of the race horses)

John explained that the horses were bred for racing.  Barbara recalled one that had to be raised and fed by hand.

Thelma beams, “Oh, that was Maccas, the one that lost its mother. I had to feed it out of the bucket and it would just push and push me.  Oh, they're cranky little devils. But that was all right, we got through that, didn't we?”

While at Rous, Thelma and Frank took their only overseas trip.  They chose Lismore’s sister city, Osaka as a destination and enjoyed a wonderful 2 weeks in Japan.

Following on from that, there was another move to Lismore in Woodlands Avenue, and then back to Evans Head, where Thelma and Frank celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Barbara added, “We surprised you for your anniversary with a party.”

Thelma replied with a smile, “At our 50th! They were naughty, weren't they? Not telling us!”

(Frank and Thelma share a kiss)

Thelma moved back to Lismore in the late 90s and still lives in her house in Goonellabah.

Thelma lost Frank on September 1st, 2015, a devastating blow, but she is thankful for all the years they shared.  

On considering life now compared to when she was young, Thelma is pragmatic.

“Things now, they're just different.”

“If the kids of today could see what I used to do when I was young, I think they'd laugh. It’s a different world altogether.”

Thelma admitted that she had done a lot in her life but is humble about it.  

“Life has just been special.

“It was a good life. I’ve had a good life.”

Thelma enjoys an occasional celebration and is very much looking forward to sharing her special birthday with family and close friends.

Thelma’s mother, Gertrude Latham, celebrated her birthday on Christmas Day. She also lived to be a centenarian and passed away on 3rd August 1999 at the age of 105 from complications brought on by a broken hip.  

Thelma's children are not too far from her;

• John and Barbara live at Tregeagle,
• Narelle spent her life around Lismore. She has passed on.
• Jeffrey lost his wife and now lives with Thelma,
• Kelvin lives in Avoca, Sydney,
• Peter and his wife, Denise, live at Girards Hill.

From her 5 children, Thelma has 6 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren and looks forward to spending time with them all.