It is not often a term applied to someone in their 10^th decade of life, but that’s what makes Mrs Uebergang so special.

Her tenacity to stay involved in her community and her home – Dimboola Nursing Home – led to her winning the W&L Mobile Healthcare Services Active Ager of the Year award.

The national award program encourages staff to nominate residents.

Mrs Uebergang won the over 95 category, and was recognised as an inspiration to others for setting and achieving her goal of walking to the nursing home garden and back to be able to tend to the flowers and fruit, and to participate in more social activities at the home.

Mrs Uebergang said she had no inkling of the award presentation.

“One of my daughters was here and she didn't tell me it was happening,” she said.

“We had a meeting first – one of our usual meetings – and then they said, 'We have something else'.

“My daughter had told me to dress up a bit that day because one of the health care bosses was going to be here.

“Then they presented me with the award. I was so surprised. It was really something. It was a highlight of my life.”

Mrs Uebergang was born in Horsham as one of seven, and displayed a strong work ethic and ‘never-give-up’ attitude from early on.

“I didn’t have a decent education,” she said.

“We never went to high school. My parents didn’t have the money to send us.

“I wanted to be a nurse, but my dad said I was too nervous to do that. But I don’t think he had the money to send me.

“So we just had to do what we could and go out and work.

“We went out to work on farms from a young age.

“I had one job I didn’t like but I stuck it out like I always do, until one of the boys in the family got married and they didn’t need me anyone.

“Ten shillings a week was what I got – it was slave labour. You never stopped working.

“I would milk cows, wash dishes, cook – everything you could think of.

“I was able to do those things because my mother had taught me.

“But I really had to educate myself as I grew up.”

Mrs Uebergang worked on three farms.

“The last one was the good one because that’s where I met my husband,” she said.

“They were lovely people – they gave me a pound a week.

“The family went to church, and Alan’s family did too. He would make sure he’d talk to me every Sunday, and then he asked me to go to the pictures with him, and that started our romance.”

Mrs Uebergang said having a supportive husband and family was one of the reasons she was able to enjoy such a rich, long life.

The couple has three daughters. Mrs Uebergang now has 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

She and Alan married in 1944, during the Second World War, and shared 65 years and three days of marriage.

Mr Uebergang died when he was 91.

“He was a wonderful man – a gem,” Mrs Uebergang said.

“Because he was a farmer he didn’t have to go to war, and I was so happy.

“I hate wars and felt sorry for those who had to go.

“When we were first married we lived at Dergholm. Then Alan's father wanted him back here so we came back to Horsham.

“We lived in Kalkee Road. We lived there until we were in our 80s, when we moved into Briarwood Court in Horsham.”

As well as being a brilliant cook, Mrs Uebergang was also a nifty sewer.

“My girls always wanted me to make them clothes,” she said.

“Alan would say, ‘You girls go out and buy some party dresses’, and they would say, ‘No – I want mum to make them’.

“I was handy with my sewing.

“I guess my mum must have showed me how.”

Mrs Uebergang also enjoyed helping her husband with farm work.

“Alan was a sheep and cattle man,” she said.

“When we were first married, he was dipping sheep and he was going to get a man to help him. 

“And I said, ‘I can do that’.

“It didn’t hurt me to work hard.”

It is that work ethic that has carried Mrs Uebergang throughout her life since.

Even when faced with two broken bones in her back after a fall in her early 90s, she was not troubled.

“My daughters thought I’d never live after that. I spent three months in Wyuna in Horsham, but I never complained,” she said.

“I still can’t sleep on my side – that is my only trouble. But even that doesn’t trouble me either. I’m alright.

“I can’t get down to my feet – that’s about the only thing I can’t do. But I dress myself.

“And my physio Britany is tremendous. She is a lovely girl. She comes in and takes me out to the garden.

“We’ve got strawberries in one plot, and I reckon we would have dozens and dozens. We have flowers in the other and some rhubarb.”

Mrs Uebergang loves her trips to the garden, and intends to keep tending to her flowers and fruit for a long time yet.

“I never give in you know. That is why I’m still here I think,” she said.

“You always try your best. My husband always used to say, ‘Darling if you lose something, you don’t give in – you go out and you find it.”