ONE hundred years is a lot of years to capture, especially for a woman who was as generous and brave as Edna Paech.
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Though the detailed, and thoughtful records Edna kept were a start.
Edna Paech, aged 100 passed away at Sunnyside Home on Wednesday, October 20.
Edna had previously written about her life in her autobiography Indomitable Mouse in 2010.
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Her son, Paul Paech was floored when he discovered even more of her writing when clearing out her room.
"Her words are those of a literary person," he said.
There were dozens of meticulously written exercise books.
Edna had sat and written down everything.
The lines of her first handwritten book reads:
'At 70, isn't it time I began putting together some of the many thoughts and recollections that are in my memory storage and occasionally riffled through in a search for some particular fact, sometimes stirred by a random recall, the half-forgotten name - a person, place, event - or a strangely evocative whiff of perfume that triggers a train of still-vivid memories?'
The Wimmera Mail-Times sat down with Edna back in February to chat about her milestone birthday of 100.
She spoke about her ferocious passion for education, even attending university herself. Something unheard of for women at that time.
Edna's husband John and her family were her greatest joys.
"Life was busy but I enjoyed it. We were happy," she said in February 2021.
A huge part of John and Edna's love story were their letters to one another. Letters full of the ups and downs of early, young love.
Paul wants to see the letters treasured, a history of young love, of true love.
"Our parents were very much in love with each other," Paul said with a chuckle.
Paul said one his most precious memories with Edna was about words.
In her room at Sunnyside, Edna spoke of a poem. The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement by William Wordsworth.
She was able to recite one line by heart.
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
"But to be young was very heaven!"
Paul said Edna's eyes "sparkled with joy" just reading this poem.
"We looked it up on the internet, we sat there and read it together," he said.
The poem has since stuck with Paul, but he was especially struck with the line Edna had remembered.
"She was out of the box," he said.
"A quality item."
Edna grew up without books.
Paul recalled that Edna was once given a book as a young girl which her mother then promptly gave away.
"That window on the world and the bigger experience that literature gave her, she absorbed and passed it on to everybody, generously," he said.
Paul thinks that's why Edna wrote down so much about her and others lives in such detail.
"To remember everything," he said.
Edna was known for her gracious heart and patience. She had time for everyone. Edna was not one to judge a person, only to hear them and what they had to say.
"My sister Kate says that one of the things that people will remember most about Edna is the lovely long talks that she would have with everyone she knew, and her non-judgemental Christian faith that showed in everything she did," Paul said.
Jeanette Stanton was Edna's carer at Sunnyside Lutheran Retirement Village.
"Edna was special," Ms Stanton said.
"She was more than a resident."
Ms Stanton said Edna showed her more than what she believed.
"She's been an inspiration," Ms Stanton said.
"She never complained. She never had a bad word to say about anyone."
Ms Stanton said it was Edna's giving nature that made her special.
"She was genuinely interested in what people had to say," she said.
"You knew Edna was listening, not just listening to your words but listening to you as a person as well."
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Ms Stanton said she learned a lot from Edna.
"Live life to the fullest and appreciate everything," she said.
"Which she has done. I don't think I've known a person that has squeezed so much into her life."
Paul said if there was any lesson Edna would want to pass on it would be to take every opportunity you have with both hands.
"She was ambitious; taking opportunity," he said.
"She looked for the broad horizons. She took the opportunities that were presented to her and went with them."
Paul said she was inspirational to him and his siblings.
"She was brave," he said,
"She was open to the possibilities of life."
Vale Indomitable Mouse. Your quiet voice lives on.
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