Taikorea resident Remai Hehir turned 100 on April 2. She says she has had a fortunate life. Photo / Judith Lacy
Taikorea resident Remai Hehir turned 100 on April 2. She says she has had a fortunate life. Photo / Judith Lacy
Remai Hehir was the first grandchild for both sides of the family.
Her parents both had sisters and her mother didn’t want to favour one side over another. So when a cousin said she had been to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a lovely girl called Remai, Mr and Mrs Mullins thought that would do.
Remai was born on April 2, 1923, in Whanganui. She had 12 children (10 of whom are still living), and has 34 grandchildren and 55 great-grandchildren with one on the way.
Remai’s father served in World War 1 and returned to his Tokomaru farm Mangaiti, near Brunswick west of Whanganui, more or less unscathed, she says. He did suffer from headaches.
Remai had two brothers, Bernard, who was three years younger, and Michael, nine years younger.
Mangaiti was 25km from Whanganui on a rough road so Remai started her schooling by correspondence with her mother as the teacher.
Her father made a desk from two benzine crates that he would set up every morning in the kitchen after breakfast.
In 1934, she boarded with family friends in Whanganui and attended St Mary’s School and then continued the family tradition by attending Sacred Heart College.
She got university entrance in 1939 with the results showing an aptitude for languages - 79 in Latin, 76 in English and 69 in French. She is a keen crossword solver.
Teaching ran in the family and in those days girls she knew became either nurses or teachers - they didn’t even aspire to be doctors, she says.
She went to Christchurch Teachers’ College and was part of a drama group taken by Ngaio Marsh, later Dame Ngaio the mystery writer and theatre director.
Remai’s first teaching job was at Aramoho in Whanganui then Bulls. In 1944 she came to teach at Glen Oroua, near Rongotea.
She had been given a choice between two schools and took the advice of the daughter of the people she was boarding with - there were some “nice blokes” at Glen Oroua.
And so there were. She met farmer Christie Hehir at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rongotea and they married in 1948. On their first date they went to see Casablanca - it was so popular they had to sit in the front row.
Remai Hehir still has the recipe book given to her in 1948 at her kitchen tea. Photo / Judith Lacy
She moved to nearby Taikorea and in 1957 moved to the Taikorea house she still lives in today.
The Heihrs came to the district in 1878 and when Remai moved to Taikorea there was a hall, school, cheese factory and Presbyterian church.
For their 25th wedding anniversary, Christie wrote Remai a poem. This is an extract:
She has never smoked and only drinks the occasional shandy.
Stephanie said her mother had never done things to excess, except love.
Remai’s mother lived until she was 95. She’d never learned to drive and until she was 92 and had a stroke, used to climb the Durie Hill steps in Whanganui every day.
“We’re all hoping we’ve got the same genes,” Stephanie says.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rongotea is a big part of Remai Hehir's life. Photo / Judith Lacy
Born into a Catholic family, Remai says God means “everything” to her.
“At this stage in my life, I’m thinking what’s going to happen to my children and I pray for them.”
In 2011, she was granted a papal award for services to the Catholic Church.
She was granted a papal blessing for her 100th birthday and received a card from King Charles and flowers and a visit from Manawatū District Mayor Helen Worboys.
Remai has always admired Queen Elizabeth, saying she stuck to her way of life and looked after the Commonwealth.
