A Kamsack woman celebrated her 100th birthday last week.
Evelyn Falkiner, a resident of Eaglestone Lodge, was 100 on December 15. A reception was held in her honour on Sunday at the Kamsack Legion Hall.
Born at Blaine Lake, the fifth of 11 children born to Victor and Mary Bourgeault, Evelyn married Jim Falkiner of Kamsack, the eldest of five brothers who were veterans of the Second World War. The couple had four children: Carole Stoyand of St. Albert, Alta., Maureen Falkiner of Nanaimo B.C. and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Bob Falkiner of Brampton, Ont., and Patricia Kelly of Tucson, Arizona. She has three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
After being married in Saskatoon, Evelyn and Jim, who worked for the CNR, moved to Kamsack in 1953. Four years later they moved to Port Arthur, Ont., and then in 1973 to Winnipeg. Evelyn had worked at the Bank of Montreal in Kamsack, Port Arthur and Winnipeg, and at the Toronto-Dominion Bank in Port Arthur. In 1977, the couple retired to their cottage at Madge Lake and enjoyed spending the winters at their property in Pembrooke Park, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.
Jim, who had worked as an express agent for the railway, died in 1989.
On October 1, Evelyn moved to Eaglestone Lodge, and this is the first winter in more than 40 years that she has not spent in Florida.
Before her marriage, Evelyn had worked at the Hudson Bay store in Saskatoon and modelled new fashions on a runway for the store on weekends.
She became known as a model for hats,” said her daughter Carole, who was visiting for her mother’s birthday.
“Mom got a computer in 1985 and with it a genealogy program. She wrote her biography and we had it printed, with photographs, last year,” Carole said, adding that her mother still plays games on her laptop, goes online to do jigsaw puzzles and used to play bridge online.
Falkiner has been a member of the Legion auxiliary and the Catholic Women’s League. She is a past president of a parent-teacher association and was involved with a crafts club that made such things as acid etched aluminum trays and copper tole. She began wood carving in 1969.
She and her youngest sister, who is in her mid-80s, are the only two of the 11 siblings still living.
Asked to what she attributes her long life, Carole responded saying that her mother always had a great interest in life and chose to be busy with things to do.
“Even now, she wants to go out, to see people,” Carole said, adding that she still enjoys a rum and Coke on occasion.
