WEDNESDAY,SEPTEMBER 21, 2022
Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
INSIDE: CROSSING ROADS: STAY ALERT TO STAY SAFE P14
Going bananas for mental health P6
Richmond Funeral Home
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101 YEARS OLD
A full life, well lived Erin Kavanagh-Hall
erin.kavanagh-hall@age.co.nz
Una Hall-Webley is a skilled bowler, can power past the rest home staff with her walker and, up until very recently, was still making most of her own wardrobe. After over 100 years on this planet, it’s safe to say Una doesn’t feel her age. The long-time Masterton local celebrated her 101st birthday on September 12 – marking the auspicious occasion with a small family gathering, complete with chocolate cake, at her suite at Glenwood Masonic Hospital. Unfortunately, Una’s 100th birthday last year passed with little fanfare, thanks to covid-19 restrictions, but she was thrilled with her card from the late Queen Elizabeth II – one of her “fashion inspirations”. Una has spent most of her life in Wairarapa: A far from uneventful century, including a stint in the military, running two businesses, making clothes
for mayoral candidates, raising four children, and a whirlwind romance in her twilight years. To the community, Una was best known for her formidable skills with a sewing machine and as the face of the popular Hall’s Fabrics in Masterton. To her children, she was a mum with an irrepressible energy and who always put others’ needs above her own. And, as is clear from her cheeky demeanour, insistence on listening to the daily news on the radio, and active social calendar at the rest home, the years haven’t dulled her sharp mind and zest for life “She’s incredible,” daughter Lorraine Hall said. “She’s pretty on to it. Mind you, she always has been — we couldn’t get up to anything as kids without her finding out! “I always remember Mum being on the move — running down the hallway to put the washing on, and get dinner out of the oven. “She’s still got that energy. At Glenwood, she always makes
sure to make it to her exercise classes three times a week — and indoor bowls.” “I’m a good bowler — very accurate,” Una chimed in. “I’m 101, yes — but I don’t feel like it. I don’t feel any older. “I’m not sure what my secret is. I would say eating plenty of vegetables.” Valerie “Una” Jacobsen was born in Masterton in 1921 — [several weeks premature and weighing “only about four and a half pounds”], the second of Valerie and Walter Jacobsen’s five children. She spent most of her childhood living at Solway Showgrounds, where her father was a groundsman — and attended the old Watman’s School and St Bride’s Convent, often arriving at school on horseback. As a teen, she had a flourishing social life — and has great memories of getting “all dressed up” and riding her bike into town for social balls. When World War II broke out, Una enlisted for the Royal
101-year-old Masterton local Una Hall-Webley — with her card from Queen Elizabeth II and a photo of her younger self. PHOTO/ ERIN KAVANAGH-HALL
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