IT WAS a big day for Annette Laurie on Friday 10 March.

It was the day to celebrate her fabulous 50th birthday with a party at the Yacht Club Coffs Harbour.

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Her son, Wests Tigers player Daine Laurie, came up from Sydney, and her mum Aunty Irene Laurie (Briggs) arranged an array of surprises, with family coming in from around NSW.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was being presented with the Indigenous All Stars 2023 photo which includes Daine who proudly played in the team.

With “football in our blood”, many of the men in the family have a history of playing at one time or another, Aunty Irene told News Of The Area.

Even so, she was still surprised when Daine gave her a nana-present.

“It’s the new jacket for Wests Tigers for this year,” she said.

For Aunty Irene while it was a time of celebration – her eldest daughter’s half century – for which she dressed to sparkle in pink sequins and diamante.

It was also a time to reflect on the journey so far.

With her husband, Ray Laurie, the father of her three children Annette, Raelene and Shaun, passing away in 1984, Irene “brought the kids up on my own”.

While she was born in Armidale, she moved with her family to Brooklana when she was very young, going to kindy in Ulong, then moving to Woolgoolga before settling and going to school in Coffs Harbour.

Her parents met in Coffs Harbour, in the Old Camp at Fitzroy Oval, as youngsters in 1944.

Today, at 75, Aunty Irene is the elder of the family, the go-to mum, grandmother to eleven, and great grandmother to six babies.

She is also proudly the “matriarch of the Briggs family”.

By Andrea FERRARI