Moss Vale's Bess Ackrigg receives 100-year birthday card from King Charles

Bess and her husband Don moved to the Highlands in 1966.

Her childhood was spent on the north coast of NSW before she moved to Sydney for her first job; as nanny to the children of a Jewish family.

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"There were three children; two boys and a girl; and when I went there the youngest was 18 months old and today she's in her 60s," Bess said.

Bess loved this job and was thrilled when the children turned up to celebrate her birthday at the Moss Vale RSL on Saturday, May 20.

Bess didn't have children of her own; she didn't marry until she was 43 years old.

"I wasn't in a hurry to marry; I had to find the right person," she said.

But when she did marry, she said it was to the love of her life.

"It will be eight years since Don died on July 4," Bess said. "I suppose that's life and you can't do anything about it."

Their marriage was a pairing of equals and Bess happily supported her husband in his work for a number of farmers across the Southern Highlands.

"When we first came here he had two brothers and they worked for the farmers. Eventually they [Don's brothers] left and I took over," Bess said.

"Don taught me to weld and we built sheds and gates and heavens knows what else for lots of the farmers around here."

When they retired the couple moved to the Moss Vale home where Bess still lives independently.

"I like the outdoor life," she said.

"But when it is miserable I've got my knitting machine and I like jigsaw puzzles."

She says the world she grew up in and the world today are not the same.

"I grew up in the best time in the world. You could go shopping 10 miles away and never lock your doors or anything," Bess said.

"Today you can't walk out your door and leave it unlocked."

The world has changed; and not for the better, according to Bess.

"I don't have anything to do with the internet or any of those things," she said.

"I just keep what I like; and I know what I grew up with."

Despite this Bess said her life was "blessed".

"I'm just grateful for it," she said.

"I've got a niece and she's got two children and we get along really well together. And I've got cousins around here.

"The friends I make I keep; I've never rowed with any of my friends. That was why my birthday was so lovely because so many of them came," Bess said.

Neighbour and friend Jan Green described Bess as an "amazing" and "humble" soul.

"She gardens, grows her own vegetables often to share with others, always makes you welcome and is such a good cook," Ms Green said.

"We often share recipes. And Bess reads widely; and she plays a good game of Scrabble when we meet regularly for Sunday lunches.

"Bess is like a second mother to me and I love her dearly," she said.

Bess was one of the first Australian residents to receive a birthday card from the new King Charles and Queen Camilla.

"I would have rather have got one from his mother because I remember watching her coronation [June 2, 1954]," Bess said.

"But the poor old darling just didn't make it."

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