CANBERRA, KOMPAS.com – Female 107 years old and mother of 11 children who survived world War, Spanish flu, and the Great Depression, not to worry too much about corona virus.
Although the 10 surviving children are now over 70 years old, Dorothy Harris, from Tumby Bay, South Australia, is not too worried about the coronavirus.
Still living in her own house, this 107-year-old woman who has experienced many things in her life journey has decided to live life without excessive worries.
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“I thought about it [ Covid-19], but what can I do? ”said Dorothy.
“We’ve had epidemics before – someone lives and dies as they go through, so this time too the situation will be the same.”
Dorothy’s son, Raylene Stutley, who is 77 years old, said Dorothy’s family was not worried because no Covid-19 cases were found in South Australia and no cases in Tumby Bay.
After taking a break in the fall, Dorothy Harris, who was born in 1913, now returns to attending church and her senior group every week, although these activities may tend to be less thrilling than when she celebrated her 100th birthday.
In the air with an Australian aviation icon
At the age of 100, Dorothy decided to get on a plane and fly to the South Pole for the third time.
“The flight attendants served him a birthday cake and transferred us to first grade,” said his eldest son, 86-year-old Leon.
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But Dorothy fell in love with air travel long before that, accompanied by a flying partner that no one else could match.
Dorothy’s first flying companion was Charles Kingsford Smith, the early Australian pilot who in 1928 made the first transpacific flight from the United States to Australia.
A year earlier, Charles Kingsford Smith landed at Dorothy’s birthplace in Cowell, on the Eyre Peninsula. At that time Dorothy was 14 years old.
“I said to my mother, ‘I will fly with her,'” he said.
“So he said, ‘Here’s the money,’ and he gave me five shillings.
“So I finally flew with Kingsford Smith.
“We went through the hills, then to the sea, then back to the airport.”
At the time, Dorothy Harris’ only mode of transportation was the horse and carriage or the family’s pony, Trilby, which was used to herd sheep and collect water.
Despite having a driver’s license, Dorothy never owned a car and usually traveled around on foot.
She still lives in her own house, preparing breakfast, gardening, knitting, and doing everything herself.
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Crawling – milking – walking
Dorothy Harris grew up in an era when everything has to be made by yourself, that’s how her family can endure during difficult times.
“I learned to milk a cow before I could walk – yes maybe not that fast, but I was a kid then,” says Dorothy Harris.
She married in 1933, but those were very difficult times for her.
Dorothy also goes out of the house a lot, making rabbit traps to feed her chicks and sewing clothes with materials obtained from used pants.
“My job is to take care of the family, cook for them,” said Dorothy Harris.
‘Don’t call’
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For more than 20 years, Dorothy Harris gave birth to Leon, Glen, Coral, Val, Robert, Raylene, Colin, twins Dorothy and Graham, Meredith, and Geoffrey.
The family moved regularly on the Eyre Peninsula before Mrs Harris left in 1962 with the younger children to provide them with better opportunities for school and work in Adelaide.
Ten of her 11 children, whom Dorothy raised almost alone, are still alive.
Four of them live near their mother’s house in Tumby Bay, which is about 600 km from the South Australian capital, Adelaide.
Dorothy Harris spent 70 years working for the Red Cross and various other charities.
Raylene Stutley said her busy mother never seemed to have free time.
“We used to tell people, ‘Don’t call between 8:30 and 5 pm,'” he said.
“Because he’s usually out of the house doing something, helping someone.”
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