By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
PAKENHAM’S Roma Bratby is a survivor.
Turning 100 years old on Wednesday, 12 August, the Shanagolden Aged Care resident has experienced it all.
Born in Tasmania, Roma was the youngest of four children but spent most of her childhood around nuns instead of her siblings.
Due to an ongoing and expensive medical condition, Roma lived at St Joseph’s Convent in Morwell after her family moved to Broken Hill from age 7 to 15.
Roma recalled her cheeky ways and said she used to tease the other boarders.
“I could hear the nuns coming along the corridor with their Rosary beads rattling and I would run and they chased me every night.
“I know now I must have been a difficult child,” she said.
Roma went on to waitress at the Yallourn Hotel before she met the love of her life, Frank Bratby – an air force pilot who died at age 46.
“I was shocked when my husband Frank died.
“I had everything I wanted and needed; a six-roomed house, two cars and holidays,” she said.
With a son Francis and the loss of three daughters at birth, Roma moved in with her parents to make ends meet and never remarried.
“I always thought I had a good one (husband) as the first one and didn’t know what I would get for the second, so I didn’t want to take any chances,” Roma laughed.
After 57 years without her best friend by her side Roma moved around from Richmond, Coburg and Hawthorn and eventually secured a spot at Villa Maria Catholic Homes in 2013.
Taking stock of her life, Roma remains pragmatic.
“I had a good childhood, and a very difficult adulthood.
My son was a good son and supported me until he died in 2014, aged 82,” she said.
With a ‘very strong devotion to the Virgin Mary’ special celebrations and a fitting Mass was held in Roma’s honour to mark her century, and a song close to her heart capped off the extra special day.
The Collingwood Football Club theme song roared out as staff, family and friends joined in on her favourite tune.
