Birthday girl’s hale and hearty

HILLVIEW Aged Care Hostel Bunyip has been a hive of celebrations over the past week to mark resident Gladys Middleton’s 103rd birthday.
Mrs Middleton marked the milestone with a long weekend of celebrations.
They kicked off on Friday 12 March with a professional cabaret performance by Mrs Middleton’s grand-daughter Jeannette and her husband, Alan, with Mrs Middleton in the front row.
Then more than 20 family and friends held a party at Hillview’s function room on her birthday on Sunday 14 March.
The festivities were topped off with a feed of Mrs Middleton long-time favourite food – crayfish. The events finished off with a high tea in her honour on Monday.
Mrs Middleton was born in 1907 in Pontefract, Yorkshire, England, and was the youngest of eight children. Her family moved to Australia in 1913 after her father died.
Mrs Middleton began school in Malvern but wagged for six months as she didn’t like it. When she left school she worked as a nanny until she met Joseph Middleton, who she later married.
The couple had six children.
When her husband passed away in 1990 she decided to move to Longwarry. In 2006 she took up residency at Hillview.