Doris Stone is timeless

Life was simple, money was scarce, but love was abundant — and that’s exactly how Doris remembers it.

Leaving school after Year 7, Doris packed her bags at just 14 years old to work as a domestic in Gerogery.

It was the first of many jobs that would take her across the region — from cafés in Corowa to factories in Benalla and Albury.

A newspaper advertisement eventually brought her to Shepparton, offering free transport to work at the Ardmona Cannery.

Doris moved into the hostel, worked the fruit seasons, and like many of the ‘cannery girls’, filled winters at the WD and HO Wills tobacco factory.

It was also in Shepparton that she met the love of her life, Les Stone, at a dance at the Star Ballroom in 1948.

The pair married in 1950 and slowly built their life, starting in rented rooms before moving into their Isabella St home in 1958.

Doris continued working wherever she was needed, later spending 27 years cleaning at St George’s Rd Primary School.

Retirement brought travel and many Probus trips, as Les was the first president.

But if you ask Doris what matters most, the answer is instant: family.

“No-one can say anything bad about my family,” she says, “or they’ll have me to deal with.”

Looking back, Doris doesn’t dwell on regrets.

“I’ve had a good life,” she says. “And I was lucky — I loved a wonderful man.”