The Canadian Press interviewed some of Canada’s more than 11,000 centenarians and their families last month. These are some of their stories.
“EVERYONE LOOKS AT YOU AS IF YOU HAVE WRINKLES”
When asked what it feels like to be 100 years old, Betty McGowan replied: “It’s terrible!”
“Everyone looks at you like you should have wrinkles, but I don’t,” she said before turning around and sticking her tongue out at her daughter Shelley Coleman, who burst into laughter.
A moment later, she became more philosophical. “I’m not getting any younger, so I might as well accept it.”
At 100, McGowan’s memory isn’t perfect – and sometimes she makes up a story to fill in the gaps – but her sense of humor is intact. Sitting in a wheelchair in her Montreal nursing home, wearing a bright pink outfit and lipstick, she drew laughter from those around her when she joked that she constantly had to go to the bathroom and that her most important childhood memory was “being little.”
Photos and friendly reminders from Coleman helped refresh her memory.
McGowan was born into a working-class family in Brantford, Ontario. Her mother “was the best thing in our house” and her father “would have done anything for us.” She later enjoyed concerts, going to the movies and, above all, dancing – a passion she still pursues today and takes dance therapy classes.
She worked a series of tough jobs, including sewing baseball gloves and cutting lace in a lingerie factory. She moved to Montreal 16 years ago to be closer to Coleman after the death of her husband, John.
McGowan’s own mother died of heart problems in her 40s, but McGowan says she was always healthy. “I guess I was lucky,” she said.
Her daughter said McGowan’s advice to younger people is usually to “work hard,” but on the day she met with The Canadian Press, she said she would have preferred to work less and stay home with her daughter.
Coleman said that despite her mother’s low income, she achieved financial independence through smart investments, which she still enjoys today.
“She was independent. She wanted her own money, her own wealth. She invested her money. She was smart and tough,” she said.
Coleman said that at 71, she is well aware of how lucky she is to still have her mother in her life. “She has a huge heart. She is a wonderful mother,” she said.
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“I don’t like sitting around and doing nothing”
Angeline Charlebois, 105, pulled out her most prized possession, which she bought for her 50th wedding anniversary when she was actually planning to buy a sofa.
But it is nothing as mundane as a piece of furniture – it is a lavish mink coat.
She puts it on and shows it off. “That’s my baby,” she giggled.
Charlebois, who lives in Levack, Ontario, isn’t too concerned about living to be over 100 years old.
“For me, it’s just a day like any other,” she said. Charlebois added that she is grateful to still have the “noodles” in her brain and that she enjoys good health despite her weight loss over the years.
She starts each day with a few rounds of solitaire, one of many hobbies in a schedule full of chores and socializing.
“I don’t like sitting there and doing nothing,” Charlebois said, getting up to get a box of knitting supplies for her great-grandchildren and newborns at the nearby hospital.
Charlebois was born in Minnesota and moved to Saskatchewan with her mother as a toddler. She worked as a domestic helper in her youth but wanted to study business. Then one night at a concert she met her future husband Eugene – the two were married for 57 years.
Charlebois said she worked with her husband when he ran a butcher shop in Saskatchewan, then followed him to Sudbury when he took a job in mining. He died in 1995, and she has lived alone since then.
She has kept mementos from her long life, from her wedding dress and veil to pictures of a trip to Hawaii ten years ago that she called “the highlight of my life.”
Socializing and reading are important to Charlebois, as is the Irish cream in her coffee after church.
Things didn’t always go smoothly. Last summer, Charlebois says, she fainted on the kitchen floor while baking.
“It was literally like someone pulled the plug on me,” Charlebois recalls. Since then, she has been receiving home care and has also applied for in-home care, for which there is a two-year waiting list.
But Charlebois doesn’t mind the wait. She says she’ll go live on 110.
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“LINA, YOU’RE STILL GOOD FOR FIVE, 10 YEARS”
Every morning at 9 a.m. is an important moment for 104-year-old Lina DeBray, who turns on the television to watch Catholic services streamed from Ontario churches.
“I watch Mass every day and receive my blessing every day,” DeBray said.
She says she has plenty of them: two daughters, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
DeBray, who lives in a nursing home in Langley, about 50 kilometres southeast of Vancouver, said the only thing that bothers her about her old age is her physical deterioration, particularly her dependence on hearing aids.
But overall, DeBray is happy with her life. “I just feel like I’ve had a good life,” she said, smiling.
DeBray was born in 1919 in the small French-speaking village of Albertville, Saskatchewan, about 25 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert, and spent most of her life in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
Her family said DeBray married her husband, Arthur, in 1942 in BC, where he was undergoing military training before they returned to Saskatchewan for what the couple hoped would be a fitting celebration with family and friends. But Arthur, who died in 1995, was immediately sent overseas to fight in the war and did not return for three and a half years.
It was only on their 50th wedding anniversary that they were finally able to celebrate their wedding anniversary, with their grandchildren walking them down the aisle.
It’s not the only thing DeBray decided to enjoy later in life.
She said she learned to drive and play the piano when she was over 40.
In her fifties, she decided to start drinking when she visited her sister and called it her “happy hour.”
Her favorite drink is gin and tonic, just like the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, she said, and also “the young,” referring to Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022 at the age of 96.
However, DeBray had one rule: no more than two drinks per day.
She said aging runs in her family. One of her uncles lived to be 102, she said, and an aunt lived to be 105.
DeBray said her friends sometimes tease her: “Lina, you can do it for another five, ten years.”
But she added with a laugh: “I don’t want to live too long.”
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“Don’t worry about little things”
George Cooper turned 100 last month, and the celebrations continue.
“My goodness, I’ve already had seven birthday parties,” Cooper said recently in an interview in Quispamsis, NB
The centenarian served in the First Parachute Brigade of the Canadian military during World War II. Before that, he worked as a carpenter and farmer and later pursued a career as a photographer.
In the 1940s, he fell in love with his first wife, and they remained married for 43 years until she died of cancer in 1992. During their marriage, they practiced figure skating and dancing together and both worked as dance teachers.
In 1999, he remarried and frequently visits his second wife in a nearby retirement home, where she is being treated for encephalitis and has lost most of her memory.
Cooper avoids stress by spending time in his garden, where he tends more than 50 different vegetable plants and flower beds. He lives alone in an apartment building and considers his many neighbors his friends.
He loves music and can play seven instruments. His favorite instruments are guitar, harmonica, violin and keyboard. He also plays a cello that he built just last year.
Cooper says it’s probably his health that keeps him busy and reduces stress.
“Stop worrying about little things and take the time to find out where your stress problem is coming from. And get rid of it.”
— By Morgan Lowrie, Ritika Dubey, Nono Shen and Lyndsay Armstrong
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2024.
The Canadian Press
