Music is life for centenarian birthday girl

A woman who has had a lifetime love affair with music and won a piano competition when she was 14 has celebrated her 100th birthday at Waireka Home in Pahiatua.

Isobel Windsor received a congratulatory card from the Queen and had a visit from Tararua Mayor Roly Ellis.

"You are terribly well looked after here at Waireka by the staff," said Mr Ellis.

"You look like you are a very happy person."

Mrs Windsor was born in Hokitika, moved to Stillwater, Lake Coleridge, Wellington and finally to Pahiatua where she has spent the past 17 years.

And music has brought Mrs Windsor much satisfaction throughout her life. When she was 14, she entered in the Wellington Music Competitions for piano, winning her section. She was then asked to teach music, which she did until she was 83. And she only gave up playing piano three years ago.

"I played the Wurlitzer organ (which rose out of the orchestra pit) at the Deluxe Theatre in Wellington. I can remember my father buying me a table grand for my 21st birthday," she said.

Mrs Windsor has two children, six grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

Her daughter, Pat Wozencraft, said: "My mother doesn't feel pain. Her husband felt the contractions for her - that's why they didn't have a big family."

Mrs Windsor can remember riding in a horse and cart from Hokitika to Christchurch.

And while mostly enjoying good health, at 5 years old she contracted diphtheria and can still remember that time, but today she has "neither a cough nor a cold".

She was married for 72 years, before her husband died at 93 - he had been shot twice during World War II and managed to escape from a prisoner of war camp.