VOLUNTEER Lorna Mills is preparing to hang up her hat after 29 years at the Uniting Church's op shop in McCrae Street.
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Lorna, who turned 90 a few weeks ago, said she had promised her family she would stop working when she turned the big nine-0, but admitted she had filled in for a few stray shifts since.
"Next Monday could be the finish," she said.
"I'm only just helping out now while one of our Monday morning girls is away."
She said the 'Monday morning girls' were her fellow op shop volunteers Barb Johnson and Shirley Martin, who had all grown quite close over the years.
"We've been together about 12 years, we call ourselves The Team," she said.
"We have worked marvelous (together), we just seem to click."
Lorna said she had been with the church's op shop since it had first started in View Street in November 1985.
"I've made some beautiful friends, wonderful friends."
"Even some of the customers that I meet in the street now know me.
"Occasionally, I haven’t seem them in a while, but a group of women from Rochester would come and do an op shop crawl of Bendigo."
She said one of the best memories she had of working in the op shop was when a group of Serpentine footballers on a Mad Monday mission came in for dress ups.
"Well they were hilarious, they were just a scream," she said.
"Young men in women's clothes, or with knickers over their shorts.
"People got their cameras out. That was about the funniest."
Lorna said people who shopped at op shops could be very choosy when it came to the items they were interested in.
"Some just come and look, some are very fussy," she said.
She said among her going away presents from the op shop and The Team had been some lovely food, a bunch of flowers and even a mysterious "bag of tricks".
"Use your imagination," she laughed.
Lorna said while she would miss working in the op shop, there was still plenty to do - like helping take groceries down to people at the church's Kangaroo Flat outreach.
"I'm not going to sit at home and twiddle my fingers," she said.