If you ask Alma Tate the secret to a century of living, she will look at you with a sharp smile and say: "I do everything and I love everything I do."
It is a philosophy that has stayed with the New Lambton woman since childhood, when she used to accompany her mailman father on horseback through NSW high country to pick up the letters.
"I had the most wonderful parents," she told the Newcastle Herald from her home, decorated with a century of treasures.
Ms Tate, who is the mother of former Newcastle lord mayor John Tate, did not want to talk much about herself.
"You shouldn't be here for me," she said wryly. "I don't like having the attention."
But the woman has a lifetime of stories to share.
She has managed a fruit shop, raised two children, run a service station, served on the council and worked in the automotive business next to her house. Now owned by her son, the business is still packed with cars some 50 years after Ms Tate and husband Cedric started it.
"I like to be busy. I always have been," she said.
Much of Ms Tate's life has been about service, both to her children and the local community.
Son John was "right into" local council politics and by the mid-70s was preparing to stand for election.
He and his wife, Cathy, did not realise that moving out of the council border to Lake Macquarie would make him ineligible.
"I was putting an apple pie in the oven when [a friend] came to tell me, 'John can't stand," Ms Tate said. "He said, 'I think it would be good if you were to stand instead'.
"It is the first time I had ever known what it was like to go weak at the knees," Ms Tate said.
The country girl at heart had "never" paid much attention to politics.
But as a woman characterised by trepidation and a fierce protection of her two children's ambitions, Ms Tate realised she had to do it.
She had lead groups at church, kept the family business going and, as became clear during our conversation, had a knack for making friends with anyone she met.
"I knew I could do it," she said of her two terms as a councillor while continuing to work in the automotive business.
From Ms Tate's recollection, there were just three women on council at the time. One was Australia's first female lord mayor, Joy Cummings, who Ms Tate befriended after her election to the role in 1974.
"I worked hard for the council and I loved every bit of what I'd done," she said. "When I went in, I thought, 'this must be politics' and I just loved it."
By her second term, Ms Tate and her son were on council for the same ward. They did not always agree and the centenarian admitted she rarely conceded.
She helped establish Lambton Pool, along with New Lambton Community Centre in the old Savoy Theatre on the aptly-named 'Alma Road'. She was president of the centre from the mid-80s until 2002.
Complying, though reluctantly, with the Herald's interest in her many accolades, Ms Tate showed us an Order Of Australian (OAM) medal, citizen of the year certificates and at least 20 local awards.
"Let's put them away now," she said after opening the OAM box. "I feel I am [gloating]."
At that, the great-grandmother went back to tidying old memories in an already-clean house where she lives alone.
Ms Tate will celebrate her birthday on Saturday with a high tea, a "surprise" cake and many friends and family.
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