FREDA Robson, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, was born in Blyth, in the north of England.
Her father died when she was 11.
A few months later, on Christmas Eve, 1925 her mother Emily, older sister Eva, and she sailed to Australia. They settled at Hurstville.
Freda had to leave school at 13 to start work in a confectionery factory. She held that job until she married Keith Nicol in 1936.
In the next few years their children were born — Mervyn, Noreen and Barbara.
They moved in 1949 to the home at Bexley that Keith had built.
Freda worked during the 1950s at Mrs Hancock's lending library in Forest Road, Hurstville, before transferring next door to the office of the Propeller, a privately owned newspaper.
Freda and Keith lived at Bexley until 2004 when they moved to Heathcote to be closer to their family.
Keith died in 2006 and Freda moved in 2010 into the hostel at John Paul Village, Heathcote, where she still lives.
Her son Mervyn died in 2011 and her granddaughter Amanda Ireson in 1990.
She has eight surviving grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
She is healthy, active and mentally alert, enjoying reading, word puzzles, playing bingo and keeping in touch with her family.
