HAVE you ever wondered what it feels like to be 102-years-old?
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Well don’t bother asking Maisie Evans of Ulladulla.
While she is looking forward to turning 103 in January, Maisie says she does not feel her age.
“I don’t feel 102. I don’t feel any different to when I was 80,” she said.
However she admitted her legs were “not so good,” and her body was not responding the way she wanted.
Yet she still managed to live independently, along with a little help from the IRT in-home care program, and support from a wide field of friends.
Some of those friends gathered last week to pay tribute to Maisie and the long-running support she had given to the Uniting Church.
Maisie said she had been involved in the church “from the day I was born”.
“When I was young I was taken to church, and when I grew up my friends grew up with me, and all my friends were in the church,” she said as the group she described as “my very special church family” paid tribute to the many roles she had played within the church structure.
They included being a Sunday school teacher, an outreach volunteer, roles in women’s fellowship and girls’ groups, and stints as president and secretary of the couples club that used to attract about people to gatherings in Cronulla, where couples would enjoy evenings out while teenagers from the church would babysit their children.
“It gave a husband and a wife a chance to go out and know their children were being looked after,” Maisie explained last week.
She also spent many decades as a pianist or organist at church meetings, and still played the piano during monthly church services at Sarah Claydon.
She even played a few songs for last week’s gathering of friends, many of whom called Maisie “a marvel”.
“I still enjoy going out, and these people are very good to me,” Maisie said.
Maisie spent her early working years as a seamstress and made hundreds of wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and christening gowns for friends and family that are now treasured items.
She moved many times during her life before retiring to the Ulladulla region 25 years ago to be close to a son who had lived in the region for many years, and said she loved the area.
“Ulladulla is the most friendly place I’ve ever lived,” Maisie said.
“It certainly is a special place.”
She enjoyed driving before losing her licence at the age of 93, when she failed a medical test because of a pinched nerve in her leg.
Since then macular degeneration had made it more difficult to get about, forcing her to abandon a mobility scooter, but Maisie said she still had support from a lot of friends.
