Same secret, another birthday: Hazel Donald celebrates turning 103

Now, 12 months on, as she prepares for her 103rd birthday, her answer remains exactly the same.

“I’m still doing that,” she said.

Not a miracle formula to remarkable longevity, but rather a simple explanation for a woman who has earned the right to keep a few mysteries to herself.

“I couldn’t tell you why I’ve lived so long,” she said.

“But I’m proud to have lived so long.”

In a life that has spanned more than a century of change — from horse and cart travel to the fast-paced, connected world of today — there is one thing that has remained at the centre of it all: family.

Born at Numurkah Hospital on June 28, 1923, to William and Edith, Miss Donald grew up on a farm just west of Katamatite together with her older sister, Dorothy.

The sisters were four years apart in age but inseparable through life.

Sharing a bond so close, family members say that they could finish each other’s sentences.

Today, a framed photograph of Dorothy still sits beside Miss Donald’s bed at Shepparton Villages’ Banksia Lodge.

When Dorothy married Ernest Brisbane in 1937, Miss Donald proudly served as a bridesmaid, which marked the beginning of a role that would define much of her life.

A child during the Great Depression and World War II, life was anything but calm, with the family bouncing around from Shepparton to Melbourne and back, including a short stint in Strathmerton.

Through decades of work, Miss Donald donned many hats and respectfully earned a reputation for hard work and reliability.

From the Shepparton telephone exchange to McColl and McLean’s Butcher Shop, bookkeeping roles and several family businesses, both in Shepparton and Melbourne.

“I did a lot of work,” she said.

But family remained a constant presence.

In 1950, Miss Donald along with Dorothy, Ern and their five children moved into a home on Corio St, where she lived for 57 years.

Choosing to remain unmarried through life and never have children of her own, Miss Donald became a devoted aunt to four generations of the Brisbane family.

“They keep me smiling,” she said.

She found joy in sewing clothes, knitting gifts and making home videos, capturing special family moments on film.

Her family doesn’t recognise her for any one job or achievement, but instead for her unwavering presence, with someone once saying, “Every family should have a Hazel.”

Although now the oldest resident of all three of the Shepparton Villages facilities and confined to a wheelchair, Miss Donald still enjoys being taken out twice a week by her niece Marjorie Bradley — who has always seen her as much more than an aunt.

“I don’t know life without her,” Marjorie said.

“I see her as a second mother.”

On Sunday, the whole Brisbane clan and extended family will gather at the Shepparton Club to celebrate her latest milestone.

And if there is one lesson Miss Donald hopes younger generations take from her 103 years, it is to value the family you come from.

“Always show love and respect to your family,” she said.

After spending a lifetime doing just that, it is advice she has certainly lived by.