Popular Monaro identity, Beryl Seears, celebrated her centenary on 27 July with family and friends at her residence, Bimbimbie Retirement Park, Merimbula.

Beryl has lived down the coast for a few years now, after spending a lifetime on the Monaro.

Beryl was the second child of Morton Hedger and his wife Edith (nee Reid) and was born in the Cooma ‘hospital’ which was a home used by Nurse Allen as a maternity unit, on 27 July 1926.

She had an older sister Enid, younger sister Hazel and later, a brother Ron.

The Hedgers lived at Numbla Vale surviving the Great Depression by being self-sufficient and living off the land.

Beryl started school at Numbla Vale when she was four and when it was time to go to high school, Beryl won a scholarship to Canberra Girls Grammar in 1940.

In 1942, after the Intermediate Certificate, she returned home to work on the family farm.

Beryl has always been very active, playing sport and socialising and it was at a dance at Dalgety where she met her future husband John (Jack), who ran the Seears family property at Booroola, Bungarby.

They married in 1945 and proceeded to have six children – John, Brian, Anthony, Anne, Tim and Richard.

Her husband died when he was only 44, leaving Beryl to run the property with the help of a manager, Bill Thompson.

She didn’t have time to remarry, but saw the children well educated at boarding school and agricultural and teachers colleges.

At the age of 45, Beryl started training as a nurse at Cooma Hospital, then studied midwifery in Canberra before returning to Cooma where she worked until retirement in 1988 as the Nurse Unit Manager of Maternity at Cooma Hospital.

Beryl moved into Cooma in 1999, leaving her son Brian to manage the farm.

Apart from managing the farm, nursing and raising a family, Beryl found time to join the CWA, the Red Cross, Cooma Probus, St Vincent de Paul, the Cooma and Dalgety Shows and to travel.

Her travels have included trips to Thailand, China, several to Europe and the Holy Land and to the Cameroons.

She has been an accomplished gardener, cook, golfer, bowler, tennis player and an avid reader.

Before moving to the coast, Beryl volunteered at Cooma Hospital kiosk and St Vincents de Paul, undertaking welfare interviews.

Beryl is a founding member of the Cooma ladies Probus branch.

The family is giving Beryl a big birthday bash on Saturday 1 August to celebrate her milestone in true Seears’ style.

This masthead will have another article in next week’s paper, sharing Beryl’s advice for living a fulfilled, happy and community focussed life.