Hilda Keeler and Betty Harris (rear) at Erowal with Betty’s grand piano donated to the retirement village and now enjoyed by residents.
For Hilda Keeler, the most senior resident at Maleny’s Erowal Retirement Village, music still plays an important part in her daily life. Hilda turns 99 on August 13, and she is a classically trained pianist who has been a very gifted teacher. Today Hilda’s musical talents still bring hours of pleasure to the residents who share her lodge.
By a stroke of good fortune, when Betty Harris, who also loves music, moved to Erowal some years ago, she decided she could not bear to leave her grand piano behind, so she kindly donated it to the lodge.
Betty told us she used to play her piano all the time, but the minute Hilda arrived in the lodge and sat down to play, she recognised someone with talent way beyond her capability. Betty said, “Hilda’s performances often last for over an hour and we all relive past memories through her playing. It is so sublime, I just prefer to listen to her and I don’t play anymore.”
Hilda was born in London in 1910 and can vividly recall early memories as a child growing up in London during World War 1. As a schoolgirl of six or seven along with her classmates, she recalls being shown how to sit under her school desk in the event of an air raid by German Zeppelin airships.
Hilda and her husband in 1939, the year that she worked in the Cabinet War Room in London under Winston Churchill
“This was more of a problem for us girls than for the boys”, said Hilda, “as a lot of us wore our hair up in buns on top of our heads. This was the style of the time, making it harder for us to crawl under the desks than it was for boys,” Hilda added.Hilda also remembers her cousin Arthur who was in the Australian Army and visited her family in London on the way to the Western Front. Arthur walked her to the primary school one day wearing his uniform and Hilda and the other children were particularly impressed with his unusual hat which was buttoned up on one side, unlike the other soldiers’ caps. Hilda now knows that it was the distinctive Aussie slouch hat.
When Hilda left school she worked for the GPO as a telephonist, and in 1939 after being cleared by a security check, she was sent to work on the telephone exchange in the Cabinet War Room in London. These were tense times, and although they weren’t privy to what went on behind closed doors, they all knew everyone had to play their part in the war effort.
When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister Hilda said, “I was on his switchboard and his office was just down the corridor from where we sat, and he would occasionally call in to see how his ‘telephone girls’ were going.
One person Hilda particularly remembers in 1943 was General Eisenhower who was very charming and talked to the girls about their husbands and boyfriends, who were all in the armed forces.
After the war in 1946 Hilda and her husband went to live in New Zealand where her husband joined the New Zealand Army. By the 1970s, once she had raised her family, Hilda decided to sit for more advanced piano qualifications and take on teaching.
Hilda’s late husband was also an extremely accomplished pianist as well as being the church organist for their local parish church. Hilda’s son Dick says he remembers that both parents were in great demand and very popular.
They were always being asked to play piano duets at church and other social functions.
During her long and fulfilling lifetime, Hilda has retained her abiding love of music, and as she approaches her 99th birthday, she can still bring pleasure to those around her through her beautiful piano playing.
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