Dorothy Stone turns 108, having lived through two global plagues

This South Australian great-grandmother celebrates her 108th birthday today after a remarkable life that not even two global pandemics could derail.

Dorothy Stone celebrating her 108th birthday in the Aldersgate Residential Aged Care. She celebrated with daughter-in-law Cathy Stone, grandson Ben Stone, granddaughter Jasmine Robinson (Dorothy), nephew Phillip Baldock and granddaugther Renee Turner. Picture: Keryn Stevens

At 108, Dorothy Stone has lived through two global pandemics more than a century apart.

She was just five when the deadly Spanish flu spread across the world.

And on Monday – in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, she was able to mark her 108th birthday with her Queensland-based family.

Dorothy Stone with her husband Percival. The pair married in 1938.

The state is free from border restrictions with South Australia, which let her granddaughter, Renee Turner, travel from Emerald, near Rockhampton, to join the party at Felixstow’s Aldersgate Residential Aged Care home. She said it was “amazing” to be with her nan for her birthday.

“After she turned 100, it gets really emotional when we leave because you think it might be the last time you’ll see her,” she said.

Mrs Stone, who lived in Woodville and Collinswood with her late husband, Percival, said the key to a long life was keeping busy – and a spoonful of apple cider and honey in hot water every night. She said she was always health conscious, never smoked and drank only moderately.

Her siblings also lived long lives – sister Eileen was 105, brother Bob 97 and sister Marguerite 85.

The great-grandmother of 12 was born in Kuala Lumpur and moved to Adelaide in 1928, when she was 15. She was fostered by a family in Norwood after both her parents died.

She married in 1938 and had two sons – David, who died aged 31, and Michael, who died in 2020, aged 71.