Pauline Potts, believed to be Newcastle's oldest resident, died in care on Monday evening, November 4, at Waratah. She was 106.
The great-grandmother of four has been remembered as a strong woman who overcame hardship, broke out of the rigid societal expectations of her time and became a passionate advocate for education.
Mrs Potts was born at Enfield, in Sydney's inner-west, in the final months of the First World War in June 1918. She was educated briefly at Burwood Girls' High School before she took work as a secretary and typist with energy provider AGL to survive the Great Depression.
She enlisted in the Australian Women's Army during World War II, married a soldier in peace-time, raised a family, travelled the world and attained her Arts Degree.
"I think I am lucky," she told the Newcastle Herald on her 105th birthday on June 28, 2023. "I have my days, but I'm lucky to be here."
Mrs Potts, nee Fitzpatrick, is survived by her daughters, Gail Curby and Alana Tracey, her four grandchildren - Lisa, Adam, Zoe and Rafaella - and four great-grandchildren - Sophie, Neve, Ashlee and Hadley.
She married Gordon Potts in 1946 after the end of the War and was discharged from service the same year at the rank of sergeant.
Mr Potts served in the Middle East and New Guinea, where he contracted malaria and died in 1961.
As the country lurched into the second half of the 20th century, Mrs Potts returned to her education. She completed her HSC through TAFE and attained her bachelor's degree in arts from Macquarie University in 1984. Education and the independence that it brings became a mainstay passion for Mrs Potts, for which she would become a fierce advocate.
"I used to get into trouble," she said last year, thinking of her childhood. "My mother would think I was making my bed, but I would be reading a book."
Mrs Potts travelled extensively, including at one time taking a Greyhound bus across the country in the United States on a solo adventure to reunite with old pen friends. She retired at 71 and lived independently on the Central Coast until she was 102, when she moved into care at Waratah in August 2020.
Mrs Curby spoke with her mother for the last time on Saturday. In her final moments, she reflected on her life, her motherhood and her century.
"She said, 'I'm glad you're here. I want to go. I love you, and I want to go'," Mrs Curby said. 'She asked, 'have I been a good mother?'"
"It was heartbreaking. That was important to her. I suppose she was aware of community attitudes, and she felt that she wanted to be seen as a good mother. She really did try. Of course, she had been a wonderful mum."
Mrs Potts lived her life wide-open to the world and embraced the changes it wrought. She lost her husband when he was 46, and her son was killed in a car accident when he was 20. She was, at various times, raised with the traditional values of a woman's role as a mother and homemaker, later as a soldier, a savvy businesswoman and investor, and an independent traveller.
"There were these different phases of mum's life," Mrs Curby said. Still, she rejected cynicism, embraced opportunity, and lived for and of the moment.
"She wasn't nostalgic," Mrs Curby said. "I think that was part of her stoicism. She had some impatience but also had some hard times along the way."
Mrs Potts spent her final years at HammondCare Waratah. Residential manager Khardene Kilmartin said Mrs Potts' passing had been especially hard for the staff.
"Right to the end, she continued to have poise and politeness," she said. "She was always a lady who loved a giggle."
When Mrs Potts spoke with the Herald last year, she insisted that new experiences should be taken as good, that education was vital, and that she was lucky not in spite of the times in which she lived but because of them.
"I was fairly lucky," she said. "It wasn't always easy. Kids didn't have the advantages they do today, but I think more education provides opportunities. I hope you live a long age and treat new experiences as good - there are some good ones. And I'm sure you will have a lot more to do; a lot more experiences than we had."
The adage that to live in interesting times is a curse did not apply to Newcastle's oldest resident. While the line is often mistaken as an ancient and ironic jinx, it was more likely penned by a US congressman from New York in 1939.
Mrs Potts was 21 when the words were written. She had already left school, found work, and would enlist for military service a little more than a year later. What followed would become one of the great ages of advancement at a blinding pace, and Mrs Potts saw it all. The ink was barely dry on the page, and she was at the height of her powers.
