Lyla Withers has first-hand recollection of events that most residents can only read about in books.
The Wagga resident celebrated her 100th birthday at the RSL Club yesterday with some of the remaining seven of 12 children, 31 grandchildren, 53 great grandchildren and seven great great grandchildren. “It’s lovely, it’s the first time they’ve all been together in I don’t know how long,” she said. Mrs Withers was born in Wagga on August 26, 1915 and her father helped build St Michael’s Cathedral when she was at school.
Her old house in Forsyth Street stood where Woolworths now is and she remembers when there was swamp from Tompson Street to Morgan Street.
“I really wanted the Hampden Bridge to stay there until I died but it didn’t quite make it,” she said.
