News

Sunny Outlook & Scrabble - Key to 109th birthday

Published
April 1, 2018

Mayflower resident Nessie Kluckhenn is just a year shy of joining Australia’s growing list of supercentenarians (that’s the 110+ club for those unfamiliar with the term).

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The fiercely competitive Scrabble enthusiast celebrated her 109th birthday with family, friends, and cake on Easter Sunday. Born in 1909, Nessie grew up in Glasgow, experiencing a tough childhood as the oldest of seven during the First World War.

She is happy to chat eagerly about her stint as a nanny to a wealthy family in 1920s New York where she witnessed the start of Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo flight over the Atlantic in 1927 and the collapse of Wall Street in 1929.

A hard worker all her life, Nessie took a job with British Railway during the Second World War, before emigrating to Australia shortly after, where she and her husband picked up a block of land in Coburg for about 50 pounds. Nessie believes moving to Australia was the best thing they ever did.

Her tips for a happy life include a sunny outlook and she is quick to share her motto: “Don’t grieve too long, everything passes.”

These days she is quite partial to bingo and Scrabble, clearly a great prescription for those looking to make it well past their hundredth year.