Lesley Moffitt's 100th birthday an enjoyable 'turnout'

She would have likely described the party as a "turnout" - a phrase she used for good, bad, shocking, or excellent events - her description of everything.

Lesley is a former dairy farmer, avid gardener, especially of her roses, lover of her cats and consumer of cake.

She was born on December 11, 1924, and was raised in Pambula by her parents, Royston Clifford "Cliff" Cole and Maude Lillian Hart.

She went to Pambula Public School when it ran out of the Masonic Hall.

She met Kevin Moffit, believed to have been through a family connection, as his mother and Leslie's mother went to school in the Pambula Valley and were close friends.

Kevin was described as a great horseman and judge of agricultural shows, whom she married and had two children, Diane and Barry.

"It was so interconnected, but that's the way it was. You married a farmer so everyone could be involved in dairying and making the cheese, and she didn't know anything different," Diane said.

After only being together for 14 years, living in their home "Rockleigh" in Kameruka, her husband died suddenly at the age of 38 from a stroke.

"That was the greatest sadness of her life," Diane recalled.

"It was a shock, and in those days of the 1960s, it was an untreatable illness where you're a long way from major hospitals, but nowadays, you can survive a stroke.

"But when my dad died, the farming had to stop because we couldn't manage that. She had two small kids and just herself, so she stopped farming, and it was a difficult time.

"He died when I was 10, so she was a widow for a long time, [but] I think the thing that saved us was that all of our families were here, my mother's family, my father's family in Candelo, helped mum and Barry and I."

Flicking through old family photograph albums, Diane recalled anecdotes about her mother.

"She had an eldest sister, older brother, young brother, and a twin brother," Diane said.

"She and her brother were born either side of midnight, so they never shared a birthday and they were both christened "Lesley", Lesley for a girl and Leslie boy, named after a favourite unmarried uncle."

Barry recalled taking his mother's car licence off her when she was in her early 90s.

He laughed as he shared how his mum kept finding a way to leave the residential aged care home in Pambula and reach a Holden car dealership in Bega, attempting to buy a vehicle.

"We don't know how she got there, maybe on the bus or someone felt sorry for her and ran her up," he said.

"And you wouldn't believe it, six weeks later she was back, then another six weeks passed and she was back again. She did it three times....now that's perseverance and hard work," he said through chuckles.

"She's the best [mum]. She a hard worker, milked cows by hand, walked us to school, helped my father, worked all her life, and had the best house and garden."