By MARG STORK
THERE was an air of excitement and anticipation at Darvall Lodge nursing home in Noble Park this week as residents and staff prepared for a special day.
Led by program manager Nadiya Storojenko, residents, staff and ancillary workers are meticulously ticking off the calendar in a countdown to August 14 when Edna Braden celebrates her 101st birthday.
“We have invited Greater Dandenong mayor Youhorn Chea to a party in Edna’s honour and we are hoping he will be a special guest,” Mrs Storojenko said.
Mrs Braden has lived at Darvall Lodge for four years, and her husband, Jim, was also a resident until his death at 99.
She is the youngest of three daughters and a son, whose parents ran a dairy farm in the Warragul district, and also at Ellinbank in West Gippsland.
Mrs Braden attended primary and high school in Warragul, and later completed a commercial course at a local convent.
She worked as a legal secretary in a solicitor’s office in Warragul and met her husband at a local dance. Jim, who was a school teacher, taught at schools in the area
including a ‘one teacher’ school at Lillico.
The Bradens married in the former Warragul Methodist Church in 1937.
When World War II broke out, Mr Braden became a navy instructor and went to sea rated as a school master.
He was an administrative captain of a number of N-class destroyer flotillas – British ships with crews who were mainly Australians.
While her husband was on active service Mrs Braden and their son Donald returned to live with Mrs Braden’s parents until the end of the war.
Mrs Braden is proud of her family: Donald, who is an accountant; her daughter-in-law, Kaye; two great-grandsons Anthony and Stuart; and two great-granddaughters Charlotte and Amber.
She and Mr Braden had a love of travel especially overseas, and of bowls. They played at the Hawthorn Bowling Club where they made many friends.
Mrs Braden, who enjoyed knitting, is also admired by her family and friends for her skill as a cook.
