VERA de Bree has always set her sights on seeing the delivery of a letter bearing the Royal Crest and addressed to her.

It is an ambition that should come to fruition today, her 100th birthday.

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“My mum, Vera always aimed to reach her 100th birthday and receive a letter from the Queen,” daughter Margaret Blair told News Of The Area.

“She’s had an exciting life during her 100 years and she always said, ‘I will make it to 100 to get a letter from the Queen’, how right she is.”

Vera was born at the Women’s Hospital, Melbourne on the 22 July, 1922.

She spent her young and teenage days in Melbourne until 1943 when she met Teunis (known as John), a Dutchman who would become her husband.

John was in the Dutch East Indies Army and was on R & R leave during the Second World War in Melbourne.

Together the couple travelled overseas and lived in Indonesia and the Netherlands until returning to Australia and setting up home in Bellingen in 1953.

Vera had six children, four girls (one deceased) and two boys, two born in Melbourne, one in Indonesia, one in the Netherlands and the last two in Bellingen.

While in Bellingen Vera worked as a housemaid at the Exchange Hotel (demolished now) and the Federal Hotel.

Vera played golf, tennis, table tennis, indoor bowls, enjoyed Bingo and gardening and loved dancing.

She was a member of the Bellingen RSL Women’s Auxiliary and the Pink Ladies.

After her husband John passed away, she decided to move to Coffs Harbour in 1987 to Limetree Village, the over 55s lifestyle community.

In 2019, owing to health reasons, Vera relocated to the Coffs Harbour Nursing Home, now known as The Brelsford, in Victoria Street, Coffs Harbour, where she still resides today.

Vera has 19 grandchildren, 39 great grandchildren and 9 great great grandchildren.

Happy birthday Vera.

By Andrea FERRARI