Bettine Grafton and Neville Sandiford celebrate their 100th birthdays

Centenarians Bettine Grafton and Neville Sandiford cut their birthday cakes. Photo / David Haxton

Two of Metlifecare Kāpiti Village’s residents have celebrated their 100th birthdays – within mere weeks of each other.

Bettine Grafton, who turns 100 on December 14, and Neville Sandiford, who turned 100 on November 26, were joined by about 100 of their fellow residents in the village’s café to celebrate the occasion.

The two have something other than their close birthdays in common too – they are the last two Anzacs at Kāpiti Village.

Grafton was born in 1923 in Hunterville to a family with eight children.

In 1940, when women were first allowed to join the Royal Air Force in World War II, Grafton enlisted and did clerical work, and she recalled travelling to work each morning down a gravel road in the back of a truck.

She married her first husband, Phil James, in 1944 and together they raised three children in a tiny cottage they had built.

“We saved all our money and worked like crazy to build that house.”

Bettine Grafton and Neville Sandiford have celebrated their 100 birthdays. Photo / David Haxton

The two were together until his passing in 1992, and she met her second husband, Bill Grafton, in 1997.

She and Bill moved to Kāpiti village 24 years ago, and he has since passed away.

Grafton said being in the village and surrounded by friends – many of whom are also by themselves - has been good for her, especially after the death of Bill.

“This is just a wonderful place to be if you’re on your own.”

She said she enjoys playing golf, croquet, pétanque, indoor and outdoor bowls, and table tennis with her many Kāpiti Village friends, and has tried her hand at painting and making cards too.

Sandiford was also born in 1923, but in Stratford, and like Grafton he was also in the Royal Air Force in World War II – but he was a gunner.

His time in the war came to end when he was in one of his final training flights in 1945. He was the only survivor of a Wellington bomber which caught fire and crashed.

He sustained serious head injuries, and has very little memory of this event, and he came home after being discharged from the hospital in Oxford.

Sandiford’s career only began in the war though, and he had several other jobs over his 100 years.

After the war he had a long career in the railways, before retiring for the first time but going on to have two more careers, one as an owner of a Four Square in Miramar and another as the owner of an electrical shop.

He retired for the final time at 78 and has now lived in the village for 18 years.

“I’ve enjoyed the last 18 years here tremendously, and I intend to go on for quite a long time.”