Lucy McCutcheon posing with all the family out on the lawn celebrating her 100th birthday.
Lucy McCutcheon posing with all the family out on the lawn celebrating her 100th birthday.
It was a rather reluctant Lucy McCutcheon celebrating her 100th birthday.
The Dannevirke resident has spent most of her life not wanting to cause a fuss so when her century approached she tried to make it as low-key as possible.
Lucy McCutcheon in her Dannevirke flat on her 100th birthday all dressed up to meet her friends.
But her family were not going to let that happen and reluctantly she agreed to an open day for friends on the actual day, October 25, and to a family reunion on Sunday. Both went extremely well to everyone’s delight.
Lucy was born in Wellington on October 25 to John and Edith Lawson. They moved about in her early years with Lucy attending four primary schools in Wellington, Napier, Auckland and Whakatāne. She didn’t go to secondary school.
Lucy cuts the birthday cake out at the former site of Raumati School.
She first went to work in her father’s office before milking cows and then housekeeping for different families with children.
In 1944 she met and married Harold McCutcheon in Tauranga who was a mail deliverer before learning and practising his trade as a mechanic.
The couple moved to Whakatāne and then Norsewood. Harold worked for the local garage while Lucy drove a taxi. They raised three children, Ismay, Ivan and Lindsay, and moved on to Dannevirke in 1960 where Harold worked for a variety of trucking firms then Easteel, one of his special skills making hopper mouths for topdressing planes.
Lucy worked for CCL cleaning the hospital on the hill until she retired at 60, riding her bike she affectionately named Jessabelle until it was sadly stolen before getting a family car. She held her licence until relinquishing it in 2023.
Her car was a manual drive, she never had an automatic, and at the family celebration some of the younger family members took turns to learn to drive it in a paddock out at the venue, the old Raumati School, much to the hilarity of the spectators.
The couple bought a home at 351 High St, Dannevirke, and family life was good, peppered by holidays both overseas in the Pacific and Australia as well as tours around New Zealand.
Son Lindsay remembers one early trip to the South Island. The ferries had only just started crossing the Cook Strait and were booked out for a car so a flight was booked in a Bristol Freighter to take it and the family across the water, a caravan was hired and the family toured the West Coast before the Haast Pass was the link to the East Coast loop and the Lewis Pass was the route home. They returned on the ferry which was another great experience.
When Harold died in 1991 Lucy continued in her house on High St on her own for 11 more years before moving to a council flat in Gordon St where she still resides.
Back on October 25, 2023, 99-year old Lucy received her 50-year Red Cross Membership Award, pin and flowers.
Lucy has spent much of her free time working with the Norsewood Women’s Division and then for the Dannevirke Red Cross. Granddaughter Colleen says Red Cross was Lucy’s life and in 2023 she received her 50-year Red Cross Membership Award, pin and flowers along with fellow member Pera Jones.
Lucy has a lot to do with her family, some of whom live close. Her two sons and daughter, all in their 70s, attended her family celebration on Sunday along with most of her six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Lucy's bookcase was full of congratulatory cards, particularly notable being one from King Charles and Queen Camilla on her 100th birthday.
She was thrilled to receive birthday cards from King Charles and Queen Camilla, the prime minister, the governor-general and many other well-wishers.
As for her secret to a long life, Lucy says it was “living clean”.
