Most people get a day off Monday, thanks to the Queen, to celebrate her official birthday.
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Next year will be Her Majesty's 90th birthday, and someone who will be celebrating the same milestone, albeit five weeks earlier, is Alison Aitken.
The spritely 89-year-old was born in Sydney, where she grew up with her parents and two older brothers. In her lifetime, she saw the Great Depression, and both of her brothers head overseas to fight during World War II.
Her brother Colin served with the air force. He was pilot of a Lancaster bomber and, unfortunately, never made it home, but his letter to his family now resides at the Australian War Memorial.
After marrying her beloved husband John and having their first son, the young family had to move to south for John's job in the Department of Army, first to Melbourne while the department was set up, and then to Canberra in the early 1960s.
"John's head of the department said to try and get to Campbell because that's where Defence would be built. So we got a house at Campbell – but there were no shops. And the lake wasn't here 'til 1964," she said.
"After a while they built Defence at Russell Hill. But our nearest neighbour was Duntroon and on the other side was Anzac Parade. There were all paddocks all around us. I loved it from day one."
The couple's third son Guy became the only member of the family to be actually born in Canberra.
"Guy was born at the old Canberra Hospital that they imploded. In those days you never had your husbands in the theatre while you were having the baby. I mean as much as I love my husband I was there to get on with the job without worrying about how he was feeling," Mrs Aitken said.
"Afterwards John comes over with these beautiful flowers. And they said, 'another son for you Mr Aitken', and John said 'yes, our first one was born in Sydney, our second one in Melbourne, now Guy's been born in Canberra – we're not moving to Brisbane next week."
Despite being surrounded by predominantly males most of her life, Mrs Aitken is a lover of fashion, and you'll never catch her out and about without a hat and gloves.
"My husband John always said, 'you don't drink, smoke or gamble darling but you love fashion so go for it', so darling's been going for it," she says.
These days Mrs Aitken lives by herself – John died a number of years ago – in Deakin at The Grange: "It's a retirement village – not a nursing home". And she's out and about every day, zipping around town in her bright yellow Volkswagon Beetle, that she's named Sunshine.
With one son left in Canberra – another lives in Brisbane and the other is in Abu Dhabi – Mrs Aitken's older sons told the youngest that he had to take his mother out for lunch every fortnight.
That was 18 years ago, and to this day, Mrs Aitken and her son Guy go to the Kurrajong Hotel in Barton for lunch every second Thursday.
In March next year, Mrs Aitken said the plan was to most likely celebrate her big birthday in Canberra – potentially at her beloved Kurrajong Hotel.
While she's seen a lot in her almost nine decades, there's still one thing she's waiting for.
"I've got nine grandchildren – no greats yet ... I'm waiting for some greats."
And her secret for longevity?
"I have a saying life is beautiful when you surround yourself with beautiful people, and I've always been most fortunate to have my parents, my brothers, and then my beautiful husband and my three sons."