07-08-2025
Living to 107: salt, a little scotch and doing your own thing
Clara (Win) Follett is turning 107 years old. Her secret? Salt and a little bit of scotch.
"Good food is the main thing; we didn't have sweets and ice cream and all this muck," she said. "Work hard, use your brains, don't do what other people do, do your own thing."
Sitting with her daughter, Sandy Owens, at Mayfield Aged Care, Mrs Follett reminisced about her childhood on a sheep farm in Merrriwa.
Born on August 18th 1918, as Clara Winsome Collins, most called her Win from a very young age. The youngest of eight, with five brothers and two sisters, Mrs Follett spent her early years riding horses and hunting rabbits.
"I didn't play with dolls, I played with hammers and saws and things my brothers played with," she said. "When I was 18, I used to roll my father's cigarettes, back when they had real tobacco."
The 106-year-old hasn't smoked since the 1960s, but she busted out the cigarette rolling skills a few years ago, and turns out, she still has it.
"She hasn't lost her touch," her daughter said.
At the age of 10, Mrs Follett started school in Muswellbrook, but she skipped a few grades. "I knew more than the other kids, all my brothers and sisters had taught me," she said.
After World War II, she married her husband, Albert Kinglesy Follett, in Muswellbrook. Thirteen years her senior, Mr Follett had grown up in Scone on a dairy farm.
The couple settled on a dairy farm at Meadows in the Adelaide Hills district with their two children, Daryl and Sandy. After a few years, they travelled in a small caravan pulled by their trusty Holden from Shepparton in Victoria to Brisbane.
Eventually, they bought a block of flats in Port Macquarie, in an area surrounded by vegetable gardens and rural properties.
Once the children moved out, the couple jetted off overseas in the 1970s, visiting Italy, Greece, Portugal and the south of France before they settled in their last home together in Nelson Bay.
"She lived in her Nelson Bay house until she was 102," Mrs Owens said. "She was mowing the lawn until she was 97 and still driving."
The almost-107-year-old has four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
Clara (Win) Follett is turning 107 years old. Her secret? Salt and a little bit of scotch.
"Good food is the main thing; we didn't have sweets and ice cream and all this muck," she said. "Work hard, use your brains, don't do what other people do, do your own thing."
Sitting with her daughter, Sandy Owens, at Mayfield Aged Care, Mrs Follett reminisced about her childhood on a sheep farm in Merrriwa.
Born on August 18th 1918, as Clara Winsome Collins, most called her Win from a very young age. The youngest of eight, with five brothers and two sisters, Mrs Follett spent her early years riding horses and hunting rabbits.
"I didn't play with dolls, I played with hammers and saws and things my brothers played with," she said. "When I was 18, I used to roll my father's cigarettes, back when they had real tobacco."
The 106-year-old hasn't smoked since the 1960s, but she busted out the cigarette rolling skills a few years ago, and turns out, she still has it.
"She hasn't lost her touch," her daughter said.
At the age of 10, Mrs Follett started school in Muswellbrook, but she skipped a few grades. "I knew more than the other kids, all my brothers and sisters had taught me," she said.
After World War II, she married her husband, Albert Kinglesy Follett, in Muswellbrook. Thirteen years her senior, Mr Follett had grown up in Scone on a dairy farm.
The couple settled on a dairy farm at Meadows in the Adelaide Hills district with their two children, Daryl and Sandy. After a few years, they travelled in a small caravan pulled by their trusty Holden from Shepparton in Victoria to Brisbane.
Eventually, they bought a block of flats in Port Macquarie, in an area surrounded by vegetable gardens and rural properties.
Once the children moved out, the couple jetted off overseas in the 1970s, visiting Italy, Greece, Portugal and the south of France before they settled in their last home together in Nelson Bay.
"She lived in her Nelson Bay house until she was 102," Mrs Owens said. "She was mowing the lawn until she was 97 and still driving."
The almost-107-year-old has four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
Clara (Win) Follett is turning 107 years old. Her secret? Salt and a little bit of scotch.
"Good food is the main thing; we didn't have sweets and ice cream and all this muck," she said. "Work hard, use your brains, don't do what other people do, do your own thing."
Sitting with her daughter, Sandy Owens, at Mayfield Aged Care, Mrs Follett reminisced about her childhood on a sheep farm in Merrriwa.
Born on August 18th 1918, as Clara Winsome Collins, most called her Win from a very young age. The youngest of eight, with five brothers and two sisters, Mrs Follett spent her early years riding horses and hunting rabbits.
"I didn't play with dolls, I played with hammers and saws and things my brothers played with," she said. "When I was 18, I used to roll my father's cigarettes, back when they had real tobacco."
The 106-year-old hasn't smoked since the 1960s, but she busted out the cigarette rolling skills a few years ago, and turns out, she still has it.
"She hasn't lost her touch," her daughter said.
At the age of 10, Mrs Follett started school in Muswellbrook, but she skipped a few grades. "I knew more than the other kids, all my brothers and sisters had taught me," she said.
After World War II, she married her husband, Albert Kinglesy Follett, in Muswellbrook. Thirteen years her senior, Mr Follett had grown up in Scone on a dairy farm.
The couple settled on a dairy farm at Meadows in the Adelaide Hills district with their two children, Daryl and Sandy. After a few years, they travelled in a small caravan pulled by their trusty Holden from Shepparton in Victoria to Brisbane.
Eventually, they bought a block of flats in Port Macquarie, in an area surrounded by vegetable gardens and rural properties.
Once the children moved out, the couple jetted off overseas in the 1970s, visiting Italy, Greece, Portugal and the south of France before they settled in their last home together in Nelson Bay.
"She lived in her Nelson Bay house until she was 102," Mrs Owens said. "She was mowing the lawn until she was 97 and still driving."
The almost-107-year-old has four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
Clara (Win) Follett is turning 107 years old. Her secret? Salt and a little bit of scotch.
"Good food is the main thing; we didn't have sweets and ice cream and all this muck," she said. "Work hard, use your brains, don't do what other people do, do your own thing."
Sitting with her daughter, Sandy Owens, at Mayfield Aged Care, Mrs Follett reminisced about her childhood on a sheep farm in Merrriwa.
Born on August 18th 1918, as Clara Winsome Collins, most called her Win from a very young age. The youngest of eight, with five brothers and two sisters, Mrs Follett spent her early years riding horses and hunting rabbits.
"I didn't play with dolls, I played with hammers and saws and things my brothers played with," she said. "When I was 18, I used to roll my father's cigarettes, back when they had real tobacco."
The 106-year-old hasn't smoked since the 1960s, but she busted out the cigarette rolling skills a few years ago, and turns out, she still has it.
"She hasn't lost her touch," her daughter said.
At the age of 10, Mrs Follett started school in Muswellbrook, but she skipped a few grades. "I knew more than the other kids, all my brothers and sisters had taught me," she said.
After World War II, she married her husband, Albert Kinglesy Follett, in Muswellbrook. Thirteen years her senior, Mr Follett had grown up in Scone on a dairy farm.
The couple settled on a dairy farm at Meadows in the Adelaide Hills district with their two children, Daryl and Sandy. After a few years, they travelled in a small caravan pulled by their trusty Holden from Shepparton in Victoria to Brisbane.
Eventually, they bought a block of flats in Port Macquarie, in an area surrounded by vegetable gardens and rural properties.
Once the children moved out, the couple jetted off overseas in the 1970s, visiting Italy, Greece, Portugal and the south of France before they settled in their last home together in Nelson Bay.
"She lived in her Nelson Bay house until she was 102," Mrs Owens said. "She was mowing the lawn until she was 97 and still driving."
The almost-107-year-old has four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
