By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Flanked by a huge brace of family, Doreen ‘Peg’ Hill celebrated her 90th birthday in dappled sunshine at Wilson Botanic Park.
The Dandenong-born great-grandmother says she made a point of always being there for her kids.
And they were there for her at her garden party on 23 February. They included many of her four sons Neville, Kevin, Bruce and Rodney, nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
“I just think having a wonderful family … I’m so blessed.”
A self-described ‘home-body’, Ms Hill says she had been a mother “from the word go”.
“I always wanted to be a mother and believed in being there for your children.”
The first five years are the most important in a child’s life, she says. It’s the stable foundation before they go to school.
It’s certainly worked for her four sons, who’d do anything to help anyone, she says.
Born on 27 February 1929, Ms Hill is grateful for her, brother Des and sister Irene being raised strictly by parents Maurie and Esme Bending.
“We got older and we realised how well brought-up we were.
“We were taught to respect other people.”
Maurie was well-known around Dandenong as a tiler who packed his tiles and tools all onto a bicycle.
“You wouldn’t get away with it these days.”
After attending Dandenong State School, she worked in an insurance office in Melbourne and Ivan Jenning’s taxation accountancy in Dandenong.
She met her husband Arthur Hill – a Drouin-based milk transporter – at the Saturday night dances at Dandenong Town Hall.
They married in 1952, settling and raising their family next to the Mechanics’ Hall in Narre Warren. In later life, they moved to Manuka Road, Berwick.
After her husband died, Ms Hill has moved in with her youngest son Rodney in Beaconsfield in 2001.
Beforehand, Ms Hill insisted she didn’t want a special 90th birthday party. But she clearly revelled in the family coming together from interstate.
“I’m blessed to get to 90.
“I’ve got to keep living. I’ve got to keep around for my great-grandchildren.”
