Pace on Earth

Long Time Running

File this under the list of things I feel I should have known more about, but it appears as though the oldest living Canadian was a New Brunswicker. Sadly, as you can tell by the tense used in the previous sentence, she has passed away.

Margaret Fitzgerald was born in 1896 and celebrated her 113 birthday a few weeks ago. She was born in Tankville, just North of Moncton and spent her last days in a nursing home in town. Her only living relative is her nephew Reg King, who is 90. She was thought to be one of the 15 oldest people in the world at the time of her death.

To put it in perspective, she was born when Canada was 19 years old and had Wilfred Laurier as Prime Minister; the same year that Henry Ford invented his first horseless carriage and 5 years before Marconi sent a telegraph across the ocean. She was 21 when Canadians won the Battle of Vimy Ridge and turned 49 the year the Second World War ended. She was 78 when I was born and turned 100 the year Jean Chretien 'had to choke a bitch'.

The images of my childhood are of big cars, rotary phones, and 12 channel tvs. Margaret grew up when horses were still the primary mode of transportation, iceboxes kept food cold, and radios were 'gathered 'round'. It's hard to fathom that our generation will see as much change in our lifetime as she did in hers. I guess it helps if you live to be 113. Amazing.

Pace out.

posted by Vitamin S @ 12:58 a.m.