Kerre & mum Colleen: 'WE'RE ON THIS ADVENTURE TOGETHER'

Finally living in the same city, mother and daughter are making up for lost time

- Wendyl Nissen

Colleen Woodham is busy looking for an outfit in red, white and blue when the Weekly pops by for a visit. “We’re having a coronation tea this afternoon and I have to dress appropriately,” she laughs.

But this is her life now, retirement village living complete with enough activities to keep the very social, very fit Colleen, mother of much-loved Kiwi personality and our columnist Kerre Woodham, occupied.

It’s one that took a lot of soul-searching for Colleen, Kerre and son Tony, but one that has turned out to be a blessing for all.

Colleen recently made the move from her Hamilton home to Auckland and hasn’t looked back.

The following day, she plans to take a bus into Queen Street in central Auckland with some new friends just to try it out. Colleen has done an exercise class followed by yoga and she’ll have a swim later before having a drink at happy hour.

“I’ve been an Aucklander for three months now and I’ve had to rethink everything I had set my mind on for someone my age.”

At 85, Colleen admits there were some things she wasn’t going to do when she got to this age. “I was always going to stay in my home, in my lovely street where I had been for 40 years, which was full of my close friends and we were all golfers together.”

A player for 63 years, she was a member of her local golf club in Hamilton for 43 years.

“I had decided at age 85, I would stop golf because it had become a lot harder than it was 60 years ago and I just felt I would finish.”

Then the street she loved so much began to change. “Houses were being sold and apartments put up. Then three of my friends died and two of them went into retirement villages. I just felt it wasn’t suitable any more.”