Emma Woods with her family, clockwise from left, great-granddaughter Emma Weigall, granddaughter Andrea Weigall, daughter Marg Woods, granddaughter Lauren Sidler, and great-granddaughter Laura Weigall. Picture: Jeremy Bannister
A SMOKE and a Coke – that is the secret to long life, according to 105-year-old Emma Woods.
Mrs Woods, who moved to Ballarat just three weeks ago after her Footscray home burned down, admits she “doesn’t have a clue” exactly how she has lived for 105 years.
But she does have one theory she believes has kept her ticking.
“I can’t do without my Coke,” she said.
Not a day goes past when the great-grandmother fails to have a glass of Coke.
And although she does not hit the cigarettes as hard as she once did, she probably wouldn’t say no to an offer.
Having grown up in the Western Victorian town of Paradise, near St Arnaud, Mrs Woods was raised as an orphan after her mother died at childbirth and her father fought in World War I and II.
After marrying Herbert and moving to Footscray in 1962, Mrs Woods lived in the western suburbs house until it tragically burned down in May.
Miraculously, she survived the huge fire by a matter of minutes after being rescued by neighbour Chris Nguyen.
It was after that moment that she made the trek back to country Victoria.
And home is now the PS Hobson retirement village.
But it is not as though the bitter cold of a Ballarat winter has her worried.
“Well at least it’s not too hot,” she said.
Mrs Woods has two children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
She turns 106 in August.