Born in the Nagambie Bush Nursing Home on April 8, 1931, Eileen was the eighth of nine children to Jack and Christina Phelan.
Eileen and her three brothers and five sisters lived with their parents on their 4 ha property at Goulburn Weir.
Jack worked for the railways but kept them self-sufficient by providing for his family shooting rabbits, catching fish and crayfish as well as having cows, chooks, turkeys, and some vegetables and fruit trees.
“Our family never went without food and I remember my mother was a full-time mum that kept the family home buzzing with no electricity and an old woodstove,” Eileen said.
“Us children went to school at the little one-room Goulburn Weir state school that had a little porch and a school bell.
“About 13-15 students attended the school back then. I remember saluting the flag on a Monday and singing “God save the King.”
When Eileen was 10 the family moved to Nagambie. She finished her education at St Joseph’s Catholic school and left at 14. She went to work at the Cave’s Café, then for a factory that made raincoats and waterproof equipment.
In 1948 she met a young man at a dance, Jim McDonald. He had served in the latter part of the second world war in the Royal Australian Air Force. He used to come up to Nagambie to help his father on their farm property.
The couple found they had similar interests; the same church and they joined in the same local social groups, went dancing and enjoyed other activities together.
They dated for a few years then married at St Malachy’s Catholic Church on May 9, 1953 and remained married until Jim’s death in 1987.
Eileen’s sister Bev Phelan and Mary McDonald were her bridesmaids, and Len Tobin was Jim’s Best Man and Bill Phelan his groomsman.
Their wedding reception was held in the old St Joseph’s hall and they honeymooned at Lakes Entrance.
Jim and Eileen moved to a farm in Wood End and they lived there for 17 years then moved back temporarily to look after Jim's dad, Jack when he was very ill in 1965.
It was sadly two years before Jack passed away and by then the children wanted to stay at the school in Nagambie.
So the family moved into Jack's house at 265 High St in 1967 and farmed their property at Locksley-Longwood Rd.
Over the years, the couple had seven children. The first born in Nagambie, then three in Kyneton Hospital and another three in Nagambie.
Their children went to St Joseph’s Primary school, then onto secondary education in Bendigo, Shepparton and Seymour.
Eileen was on the school and church committees and also served for 34 years as a volunteer at St Vincent de Paul Op Shop in Seymour and for 22 years at the Nagambie Mechanics Institute’s Op Shop.
All Eileen and Jim’s children married and there are now 15 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
Up until her sight got bad a few years ago, she still drove, played cards, enjoyed line dancing, and mixing with her many family and friends.
She has been in her little unit for more than 11 years after selling her place to the Burgess family to build the IGA supermarket.
“I thank God every day for the good life I have had. I feel very blessed. My family says I have always followed the three fs. Family, friends and faith. And they are right,” Eileen said.
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