GATHERING OF THE CLAN: Hazel Fleming surrounded by family for her 100th birthday.
GATHERING OF THE CLAN: Hazel Fleming surrounded by family for her 100th birthday.
Family travelled from far and wide to celebrate a very special birthday at Totara North last month.
The world has changed beyond all recognition since Henry and Mary Foster welcomed their daughter Hazel to the fold at Mangonui on March 15, 1915, and the family has grown significantly since then.
Hazel (or Nana, as she is affectionately known) and her husband Arthur Fleming, who passed away in 1975, spent many years farming in what was then the Whangaroa County, and Hazel still lives there, in good health and treasuring her independence.
Around 100 family and friends, including most of her descendants - five children, 17 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren - gathered for the celebration, which featured a barbecue and afternoon tea, a bouncy castle, items from grandchildren and great-grandchildren and the cutting of her cake, after great-granddaughter Kiralee Crawford, just days away from her own birthday (4th), helped blow out the candles. Most of her family live in New Zealand, the exceptions being a grandson in the US and a daughter in Australia.
Hazel strayed only briefly from the area where she was born and raised, working for a time at a boarding house at Kawakawa Bay and a dairy in Auckland, and as a laundress for a Dr Walker in Whangarei.
She once devoted a good deal of time to indulging her passion for needlework, knitting and crochet, but daughter-in-law Janet Fleming said these days she was more likely to be occupied welcoming visitors and that the Totara North Bible Chapel had long been an important part of her life.
