Eva is 99 not out

Eva May Armour, pictured celebrating her 99th birthday last week with family at the Dolphin Cafe in Brunswick Heads, is a true survivor.

Her daughter Barbara Chambers said that Eva, a longtime Byron Bay resident, has survived a lot.

‘She survived the Great Depression, the (second world) war, lost all in the big flood in Newcastle, the earthquake also there years later, and more recently, the tragic fire in which four young people died in a block of units in Fletcher Street, Byron Bay in 1998,’ Barbara said.

The Byron Bay fire affected her mum deeply for years later.

Eva, living in an upstairs unit, was rescued by an anonymous good samaritan working at the Great Northern Hotel nearby who saw smoke billowing from the block and ran over and pulled her out of the burning building, both falling down the ladder in the process.

‘She lost everything again in the fire and was left only with the clothes she was standing in, and we never did find out who the rescuer was to thank him, he didn’t want the limelight,’ Barbara said. Eva, a great, great grandmother whose husband Angus died in 1973, said she’ looking forward to more family reunions.