Mabel makes tracks to meet fellow 102-year-old

Mabel Edmonds met Mabel, the Number 12 tram which was built in 1912 and put into service, the same year she was born. In the tram are Ian Robertson of Palmerston North and Marry Marsh.

Mabel Edmonds met another Mabel on Saturday, and both are 102.

She left her walker and pulled herself aboard the Number 12.

Mrs Edmonds, a resident at Springvale Manor, was born in 1912 in Invercargill, the year the Mabel, Wanganui's Number 12 tram, was built and put into service.

Mrs Edmonds thought she was going to the River Traders' Market, but it was a special trip for her to meet the only other Mabel who shares her birth year.

The meeting brought back special memories for Mrs Edmonds, of the time she travelled by tram to the zoo at Aramoho, and of her cousin Gladys Edmonds who was a conductor on the trams.

Mrs Edmonds had four sons, two of whom were with her on Saturday.

On wet days the family would catch the tram at Williams Park in Wanganui East, to the Marist Brothers school in Dublin St. St Mary's School was also on this site in later years, and more recently Whanganui UCOL flats were built there.

After her visit with Mabel, Tramways Trust trustee Ed Boyd presented Mrs Edmonds with a book on trams.

"I would like to thank Ed Boyd for making my morning so enjoyable," she said, and then walked to the market, where she enjoyed whitebait fritters and a coffee.