Marie Whalan turns 100 at Jindalee Aged Care Residence

"It's a strange thing. I can talk about old people but can't include myself in that group," she said, with a smile in her voice.

"I was very fortunate. My parents were 89 and 91 when they died and they were always very interested in world affairs and what was going on.

"I was think we brought up listening to the family conversation."

Now living at the Jindalee Aged Care Residence in Narrabundah, Mrs Whalan raised her two children in the family home in Beauchamp Street in Deakin.

Her husband, Lyndhurst "Lyn" Whalan, was a local government town or shire clerk who worked for councils in Condobolin, Crookwell, Balmain, Manly and Gordon.

The family, which now included children Bronwyn and Robert, moved to Canberra in 1974 so that Mr Whalan could work in local government grants for the Grants Commission during the Whitlam government.

Mr Whalan sadly passed away in 1977, making Mrs Whalan a widow for the last 46 years but someone who still embraced life.

"I've had a very happy life, I've always had a lot of wonderful friends," she said.

Born in Brewarrina in north-western NSW, Mrs Whalan studied nursing at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney during World War Two.

"I remember being in the nurses' home and the alarm going off to tell us the Japanese were in the harbour," she said.

Nursing was something she wanted to do because it was about "helping people and being decent".

"My mother was a nurse, so I just think it was in me," she said.

Mrs Whalan met her husband-to-be while she was working at a country hospital in Condobolin, where Mr Whalan would come to visit his niece who was recuperating.

"One day his niece said, 'Uncle Lyn, you don't come to see me, you come to see Marie'," Mrs Whalan said, with a laugh.

The couple married in Condobolin in 1948.

Mrs Whalan, who turned 100 on July 23, said she's not sure what the secret to a long life might be, but did hazard a guess.

"Maybe it was having rolled oats from the age of four or maybe it was not ever smoking," she said.

Definitely keeping interested and involved - and surrounding herself with friends. Mrs Whalan joined a bridge club and met a lifelong friend in her bridge partner Ruth.

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She celebrated her 100^th birthday milestone with family and friends including her five great-grandchildren at the Yacht Club Restaurant in Yarralumla. And everyone had a good time.

Just don't call Mrs Whalan "old".

"I just can't consider myself to be in the old age group," she said.

Here's cheers to the ever-youthful Mrs Whalan.

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