Dannevirke: Shirley Chapman-Taylor celebrates 100th birthday, reflecting on Napier school days, wartime love, and travel
Shirley Chapman-Taylor celebrated her 100th birthday with friends and family in Dannevirke. Photo / Michaela Gower
Sitting on a floral couch in her villa at Rahiri Lifecare in Dannevirke, Shirley Chapman-Taylor says she never expected to reach a century.
“I wasn’t the person that you would have picked out of the classroom to say ‘gosh, I bet they live a long time’ because I was probably the smallest in the class,” she says with a laugh.
When reflecting on her 100 years of life while preparing for her birthday party on Tuesday, Shirley said her time at Napier Girls’ High School from 1938 to 1942 was a particular highlight.
“I really liked high school ... I was a keen sports person, I just joined in and made lots of friends.
“I remember I hated the cricket, I would be long [off] right out, so I didn’t have to do anything.”
She can still speak a bit of French learned from her classes, and rattles off one phrase: ‘ferme la bouche’ - close your mouth.
Shirley said after high school, she found herself at a loose end and went apple picking.
“They were really desperate to get the apples off the trees, because most of the men had gone to war, so they only had old men ... or women.”
That’s where she first met a man named Robin (Rob) Chapman-Taylor, who was in the army and stationed at Bluff Hill in Napier.
“When he came up to tip the apples, he said, ‘What are you doing tonight? Would you like to go to the pictures?’”
She said the pair hit it off and even shared lunch while working at the orchard.
“They had just awful sandwiches, so I used to share my lunch with him; so romantic.”
After World War II ended, Rob moved back to Wellington after his discharge from the army, and kept in touch.
“We just wrote to each other, and he would come up on his motorbike some weekends.”
Rob completed his jeweller’s apprenticeship and moved back to Napier, where the couple married on January 7, 1948, in St Paul’s Church.
Later, the couple went into partnership with Rob’s younger brother Gordon, who married Shirley’s younger sister, Beverley and opened Chapman-Taylor Brothers, a manufacturing and jewellery retail business in Napier.
They had two children, daughter Lyn and son Kerry, who died aged 48.
After finishing at the jeweller’s shop, they based themselves out of London and travelled to Germany, Italy, Norway, Greece, and France.
They stayed with friends they had made while owning a bed and breakfast in Stratford in the 1980s.
Rob died in 2021, three years after the couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
Nowadays, Shirley, a passionate gardener, still tends to her flowers and has only given up her driving licence in the past couple of years.
As for her secret to long life, she said it was just “the luck of the draw”.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.