The year 1912 was big in Catherina van der Linden's life; vitamins were identified, the South Pole was discovered, the Titanic sank and The Girl Guides were founded.
Another thing happened, specifically on August 26 - Catherina was born. Today, she is South Australia's oldest resident and is celebrating her 110th birthday.
Family, friends and staff at Southern Cross Care's West Beach Residential Care in Adelaide - where she lives - are celebrating the occasion with her today.
Catherina says the secret to her longevity is maintaining an active lifestyle - she goes to the gym twice a week and shows a steely determination to complete her daily exercise routines.
Aside from her active hobbies, she enjoys playing card games, gardening and socialising with fellow residents.
"Catherina is a South Australian treasure who brings joy to our staff with her positive outlook and commitment to living better for life," Southern Cross Care (SA, NT & VIC) chief executive David Moran said.
She was born in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Called 'Too' - a Dutch abbreviation of Catherina - her father was a tailor and designer, and her mother was a dressmaker. She had two sisters and one brother.
Catherina dearly wanted to study and become a teacher, but as her older sister had married and become a housewife soon after becoming a teacher, her father said Catherina had to leave school after completing her third year of high school. While very disappointed, she became a secretary/typist.
In her youth, Catherina was interested in outings and when she and her sister didn't want to be understood by their parents, they would speak in French.
On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded and occupied the Netherlands. Dutch steelworks had been coveted by the Germans, and Catherina married John van der Linden that same year.
The couple had four children - two boys and two girls. During and after the war, Catherina, John and family experienced some hard times and the family decided to emigrate to Australia in the 1950s.
The family lived in migrant camps for two years, in very basic Bonegilla, freezing cold two small rooms in Nissen huts and a small two bar radiator; Woodside had a better heater and the children went to school, followed by Glenelg which was comparative luxury as the family had three rooms.
Both Catherina and John had learned to speak English at school, were quite fluent and encouraged the children to speak English at home.
Catherina worked at Myers as a typist for several years, but was very homesick. She returned to the Netherlands with the children where they remained for about 18 months, after which they returned to Australia. The children loved the three overseas voyages and the trip back helped with the homesickness.
The family settled happily in Glenelg. When the children had all left home from Glenelg, Catherina and John built a house in the hills after John retired from his accountant position as company secretary. They had a very happy few years there, but John died from a heart attack when he was 70. Catherina was 67 years old.
She remained living there for some years, but the maintenance of livestock on three acres became too much and Catherina moved to Glenelg again to a unit across the road from her daughter and lived there until November 2019.
Catherina's retirement years involved playing bowls both carpet and lawn bowls, learning to play bridge, travel to Europe and the Middle East, plus a varied active social life.
At age 85, she walked the City-Bay and did the same for several years with one of her daughters.
At 103, she was a first-time model in a fashion parade with her grand daughter and great grand daughter.
She moved to Southern Cross Care's West Beach Residential Care in 2019.
