Clocking 100 with a smile

Born Thomia Drossos on February 10, 1926, in Florina, Greece, she was the second of six children in a close-knit family built on hard work and self-sufficiency.

“We had our chores to do as children, but we were happy,” she says.

“We lived very self-sufficiently — gardening and looking after animals.”

After six years of schooling, Thomia worked full-time alongside her family, never imagining her life would eventually stretch across continents.

In 1950, she met her husband, Thomas Damianopoulos, through an arranged introduction.

Seven years later, with two young children, on her own she boarded a ship bound for Australia — a six-week voyage that would change her life for ever.

“In search of a better life, there were many big wars happening at that time,” she recalls.

She arrived in Shepparton in 1957, joining her husband and extended family on farmland along Ford Rd, after they had come cross two years prior.

“I moved straight on to the farm and began working there,” she says.

Looking back on the journey, Thomia laughs.

“You couldn’t pay me to get on a boat again,” she says.

As Shepparton’s Macedonian community grew, so too did Thomia’s sense of belonging.

“Coming to Australia, a rich country, meant we could get ahead,” she says.

Over the decades, she built not only a working life on the land, but a large and lasting family.

Today, Thomia is surrounded by 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

“I have a big family in Australia now,” she says proudly.

Last weekend, family gathered once again to celebrate her 100th birthday, filling her home with laughter, stories and generations under one roof.

Asked about the secret to reaching triple figures, Thomia keeps it simple: a Mediterranean diet and a lifetime of activity.

Her humour, however, remains unmatched.

“God has forgotten about me,” she jokes. “I’m lucky my brain hasn’t deteriorated.”

After a century of living, working and laughing, Thomia Damianopoulos wouldn’t have it any other way.