Frank Geddes turned 100 on Thursday, but the Covid-19 lockdown didn't stop him celebrating the occasion with family.
Frank Geddes turned 100 on Thursday, but the Covid-19 lockdown didn't stop him celebrating the occasion with family.
Northlander Frank Geddes wasn't going to let a Covid-19 lockdown stop him celebrating his 100th birthday with family.
So on Thursday - despite the lockdown and no visitors being allowed at Whangārei's Jane Mander Retirement Village, where he lives - he still had plenty of family to celebrate with, only via online video communication service Zoom.
The staff at Jane Mander also made sure it was done in style, with a big cake to accompany his cards from the Queen and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Frank is a survivor, and thriver, daughter Alison Geddes reckons. He survived the Spanish flu pandemic (which ran from January 1918 to December 1920), the Great Depression, World War II - where he served as a lieutenant in the British Navy - and now the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Alison said Frank was disappointed that his original plans for Thursday - to be surrounded by family and friends - had to be canned, after all, "he had been planning it for the past year''.
But, Alison said, he loved Thursday's Zoom birthday party with family logging in from around the world. Alison and his son Peter logged in - but sadly not his late daughter Terry - along with his eight grandchildren and most of his 12 great grandchildren, with some joining the party from the US and the Netherlands (where it was 4am).
''It was a lovely and it went really well. Dad said he really enjoyed it. There was lots of banter between us, and dad interjecting and he was very happy to have the party,'' Alison said.
Making it even more special was that one of his great grandsons, who is 1, had learned just that morning to say a special word.
''So when he was asked who's birthday it was, he said 'pappa'. That brought the house down. And the Jane Mander staff were just wonderful, bringing him a big cake and card and decorating the room.''
While the plans to see everybody at his birthday was foiled, Alison said she had married recently and most of the people who were to come to the birthday attended the nuptials, so Frank at least caught up with them all then.
Frank Geddes was a lieutenant in the British Navy during World War Two. He turned 100 on Thursday.
Frank was born in Whangape in the Far North, spent most of his young life in Whangape, Omapere and Kaitaia, and went to Kaitaia District High School.
He was farmer on a remote property on the Whangape Harbour and has been on the Mangonui County Council, Bay of Islands Power Board and various other public bodies, and has been a Rotary member for more than 50 years. He has also been an active member in the Community Arts Society in Kaitaia and directed several plays for the Kaitaia dramatic society.
Alison said her Dad was also very involved in sheep dog trials in the 1950s and 19060s and had two NZ champion dogs.
He was a Justice of the Peace and marriage celebrant, a role that he really enjoyed. He was deeply involved with the National Party, and was the Hobson Electorate chairman for many years.
He went to teachers' college where he met his wife, Lorna Tregoweth, one of the Tregoweth twins who were known for their striking chestnut red hair. They married just as the war began and he went overseas soon after.
On returning, he taught for a while in Wellington, where Lorna was a PE lecturer at Wellington Teachers' Training College, before deciding to move to the family farm on Whangape Harbour. Lorna died in 2006.
