HAZEL Teggins is relaxing from a weeklong birthday celebration after becoming the first resident at Canossa retirement village to turn 100.
Mrs Teggins, who turned 100 on January 22, said she never expected to reach a century milestone.
“(I) never thought about it to be perfectly frank,” she said.
“Even when I was in my 90s I thought, ‘I wonder when my time’s coming…’”
Mrs Teggins has outlived her husband of 50 years, Allan Teggins, and son Fr David Teggins, a former Armidale priest who died of injuries sustained from a car accident.
The third of five children, Mrs Teggins was born in the middle of the First World War.
She met her husband in 1936 at a picnic in her hometown of Tamworth and the pair married on December 26, 1939.
Her husband was called to the air force in 1943, leaving Mrs Teggins alone with her first child and unknown to her, pregnant with her second son, David.
“Allan first saw him when he was nine months old,” Mrs Teggins said.
“And he didn’t see him again until he came home.”
Mrs Teggins moved to the Canossa Retirement Village 10 years ago, and was the centre of attention at a belated birthday party one week after turning 100.
“I don’t go around telling them,” she said.
“Word just got around.”
Mrs Teggins said life at 100 “doesn’t change”.
“You just live your life as normal,” she said.
– Emilie Ng
