Molly Rogers celebrates her 104th birthday
It was the year the bra, the parachute, windshield wipers and stainless steel was invented. And 1913 was also the year Molly Rogers was born.
With the Mantini Sisters performing Andrews Sisters songs, Rogers’ family and friends gathered at Shorthills Villa Retirement Community Saturday to help celebrate her 104th birthday.
Rogers was born July 27, 1913, in London, England.
“I came to Canada when I was five or six years old,” she said.
Her daughter Margaret Reed said her mom came to Canada in 1919 and moved to Port Colborne where she lived for 77 years.
“She moved to Pelham in 1996 … and she’s been here (at Shorthills) for 17 years. She moved in just after it opened,” said Reed.
Rogers said Shorthills is a nice place to be.
“They look after and take care of me,” she said in her room shortly before her big party.
Reed and her sister Shirley Lazareth said while their mother isn’t as mobile as she once was — she had hip surgery at 101 — she’s well known in the building, and in Pelham and Port Colborne as well.
Rogers also had cataract surgery at 100, which didn’t take, the sisters said.
Though she’s blind, Rogers knows whose talking when they are in a room with her and she remembers every word of the conversation, her daughters said.
While she was primarily a stayat-home mom, Rogers worked at a bag factory in Port Coborne as a young girl and loved working at Davies Bookstore in Port Colborne. She also sang in the choir at St. James Anglican Church and has had a love of music all her life.
“She was a ward aid at the (Port Colborne) hospital when it opened,” said Reed.
Rogers received a certificate from the federal government during the Second World War for all of the blood donations she made at the Inco Hall on Nickel Street in Port Colborne.
“I think her attitude is what has kept her alive. She gets up prepared to enjoy each day,” said Shirley.