“NEVER resent growing old, for many are denied the privilege,” says Ballarat centenarian Eileen Donovan.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mrs Donovan this week celebrated her 100th birthday, with her great grandchildren helping to blow out the candles on her cake in front of 200 family and friends at Nazareth House.
She grew up on a farm at Bridgewater, in central Victoria, and went on to attend St Mary’s in Bendigo before graduating from Melbourne Teachers’ College in the early 1930s.
She then taught at schools throughout the western district, Maryborough and Ballarat.
She married Patrick Donovan in 1942 and lived at Learmonth where they brought up their seven children.
In 1977 they moved to Ballarat, where her father Patrick Denigan had moved as a state MP. She wrote her father’s biography for her family at the age of 80.
A community orientated woman, Mrs Donovan now enjoys leading a quieter lifestyle at Nazareth House.
“I am very happy at Nazzie. I have a beautiful big room and am well looked after,” she says.
“I don’t want for anything.”
