PHYLLIS HOLMES, 105
Sometimes Phyllis Holmes doubts she’s really 105.
‘‘On her birthday she kept saying: ‘They tell me I’m 105 but I don’t know anyone else who is 105, there must have been a mix up somewhere’,’’ her niece Carol Symtheman says.
‘‘We showed her her records and said: ‘ The Queen sent you a letter when you were 100 and she doesn’t get it wrong. And the prime minister sent you a letter and he doesn’t get it wrong’,’’ she says.
The resident at Maureen Plowman Rest Home in Browns Bay was born on September 22, 1909.
Phyllis arrived in New Zealand from England on her first birthday.
She grew up in Henderson when it was mostly still farmland and married her husband Ernest Sherlock Holmes in 1930.
There is a story behind Ernest’s name, Phyllis says.
A woman had bet his mother 10 shillings that she wouldn’t call him Sherlock.
Phyllis and and Ernest weren’t able to have any children of their own but had a lot of time for their nieces and nephews.
The couple did a lot of travelling.
Christmas time usually meant a family holiday to Piha or Muriwai when Phyllis was growing up.
They’d travel there in a truck which often couldn’t be driven the whole way to the beach because of the state of the road.
Modern amenities and the lack of fireplaces today leaves Phyllis pondering an important question.
‘‘Santa Claus can only come down the chimney.
‘‘Without the chimney how does he manage it?’’ she says.
Phyllis lived an active life and enjoyed lawn bowls and regular swims in the sea for as long as she was able. That might be the secret to a long life, she says.