By NOEL MURPHY
CATS fans don’t come much more dedicated than diehard Alice Johnston.
At 103 years old, the great grandmother from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast makes sure she catches her beloved Cats every week on TV.
“Mum watches footy on TV every week,” her daughter Leila Piggott-Blair told the Independent.
“If it’s a late game, she’ll have a snooze and sit up and watch it. She’s amazing.
“She’s very fit and with it. She walks with a walker but she’s very spritely, she races.”
Mrs Johnston had four daughters with husband Allan Johnston, of Birregurra. They lived and farmed at Stanhope and Euroa. She’s now grandmother to nine and great grandmother to 20, and moved north to Tewantin 20 years ago.
Mrs Johnston turned 103 last week and according to her daughter remains sharp as a tack and tough as nails.
“She had a fall and broke her shoulder and her hip last year. She has two operations, got pneumonia and was in hospital for four weeks and then out,” Mrs Piggott-Blair said.
“She loves life, reads the papers and watches current affairs. She just loves her sport, her footy along with the cricket and tennis.”
And, of course, she loves the Cats – an allegiance she picked up from her husband. And even though she’s a long way north she’s showing no signs of trading that allegiance for the locals.
“She wouldn’t be too happy the Cats lost to Brisbane last week. I keep saying she lives up here, she should barrack for them but she won’t change.”
