A Dubbo woman who knew hunger too well has left behind a family nourished by her love and music.
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Orana Gardens resident Florence Lucy Warnett died on September 27, less than a month out from her 101st birthday.
The centenarian survived poverty in London, the World War II Blitz, an abusive first husband and the stigma of being a single mother before Australia truly became her lucky country.
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An advertisement for a job in South Australia led her to "a gentle man and forever a gentleman", former World War II Royal Australian Air Force engineer and father of two, Ron Warnett.
The mother of Val and John would go on to marry the father of Terry and Ricky.
"She adored her children," daughter-in-law Julie Warnett said.
"Terry and Ricky came to her via Ron, but they are her sons."
Born in Putney in 1919, the future Mrs Warnett left school at the age of 12 to work as a washerwoman.
She was fed "cabbage water" at night by a stepmother who ate meat.
An almost 20-year-old Lucy was still in London when World War II broke out.
"Bombed out three times", her life was spared when she was refused access to a crowded air raid shelter where everyone inside died after a gas main ruptured.
In 1954 Australia beckoned and Lucy, her first husband and their daughter Val became Ten Pound Poms.
"It was all about Val and making sure her child didn't suffer the way she suffered," Julie Warnett said.
Ironically, Lucy's first exposure to Australia was the sight of a Fremantle butcher shop.
"She saw the meat in the window and said Australia was the promised land," Julie Warnett said.
After adopting son John, Lucy became a single mother and worked as a cook in a South Australian hospital.
The advertisement for a housekeeper and nanny, written by Mr Warnett from the tiny community of Yumali, changed the course of her life.
A happily-married Mr and Mrs Warnett followed Val and her husband to Dubbo in 1980.
Mrs Warnett taught piano having obtained a degree in music at the age of 60.
"Next to her children, music was her great love," Julie Warnett said.
Mrs Warnett's beloved husband died in 2002 followed by Val in 2004 and Ricky in 2007.
"A piece of her died with Val and when Ricky passed away she told me it was like losing a limb," Julie Warnett said.
The "selfless and ladylike" grandmother of nine and great grandmother of 11 made quilts for her family members in her final years.
They have thanked Orana Gardens and Dubbo Private Hospital for taking "great" care of Lucy.
Her funeral service will be held in the Western Districts Memorial Park chapel at 11am on Tuesday, followed by burial in the adjoining lawn cemetery.
Funeral arrangements are in the care of Abbey Funeral Home.