THE BIRKDALE TRIO
ON A SUNNY afternoon at Birkdale Place, a Revera retirement home in Milton, Ont., more than three centuries’ worth of wisdom is spread across a loveseat and a wingback chair. There’s Marion Newman, who turned 100 in March, Bernard Teague, who joined the centenarian club in July, and Vera Riley, who celebrated her 105th birthday in June. It was quite a party: live music; a local TV crew; Riley’s daughter had come from Alberta; and former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, who turned 101 in February 2022, was among the guests. (McCallion, Revera’s chief elder officer, maintains the key to longevity is waking each day with a plan and a sense of purpose.)
Precisely how long Riley, Newman and Teague have lived at Birkdale, only Newman could remember. “Seven years,” she says. From the get-go, Teague acknowledges, “My memory is terrible.” Riley, in pearl earrings and a jeweled pullover, puts it this way: “My mind is a little bit sticky at 105.”
Riley, trim and still mobile, struggles to recall where she was born in 1917, but within a few moments, the details come back: “Barrow-inFurness, in England,” she says, happily. “We were very poor, though lots of love, there were four of us. I worked in a sewing factory, making pyjamas. I had a work number, it was No. 9. I remember that – nine is my favourite number.” Her parents lived relatively long lives for the time – her mother, a homemaker, died at 80, and her father, a bus driver, died at 78.
Newman, still quick-witted and mirthful, was one of 15 children born on a farm in Edmonton. She is the only sibling still living. But she had an uncle who lived to 104, and another to 110, so Newman figures she has some years ahead – “I’m only 100!
“I don’t feel any different today than I did when I was young,” she adds. “No matter how old you are, you never think you’re that old.”
Teague, a metal molder who served as a home guard soldier in England during the Second World War, couldn’t recall if longevity runs in his family. But he suspects the recipe for a century-long life needs “a little bit of everything.” Riley says the ingredients are probably different for each person – “What might be good for his long life, might not be good for mine.”
What they do seem to have in common is an almost cheery resilience. All three centenarians describe hardships in their lives, but that afternoon, it casts no shadow on their positive outlooks. Riley lost her husband Frank many years ago, when he was quite young – “He was standing against a wall and just slithered down.” She also lost her son; and her daughter out west lives “way too far away,” she says. “But you just have to take each day as it comes.”
Newman has also outlived her husband and both her children. Still, there’s a joyfulness when she describes how three nieces on her husband’s side are the ones who lured her to Ontario so they could be closer to her: “Isn’t that something?” she says. “One niece comes to see me every night. Last night she was here until 10 o’clock!
“I think the older you get, the more you forget the hardships, you forget about your troubles,” Newman says. “But you know what you think about a lot? You think, ‘Oh, we’re gonna eat! What am I going to eat? What are we having?’” They all laugh hard in agreement at that one.