Centenarian Mary (Ray) Westlake was born in 1919. The year 1919 was when dial telephones were introduced by the American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T) and the same year that the price of a postage stamp went from two cents to three cents.
Mary, one of six children, was born in Green Brier, Sask. Her father was born in Minnesota in 1892; at the age of 24 he moved to Saskatchewan and married her 18-year-old mother in 1916.
When she was nine months old, Mary, her parents and her older brother moved to Fort Fraser, where four more children were born. When she was six years old, they moved south of Fort Fraser to Lily Lake where she grew up and went to school.
She attended a small two room school where she completed Grade 10 and then went to Fort Fraser and completed her grade 12. She graduated from high school, moved to Vancouver with a desire for a nursing career and attended St. Paul's school of nursing for 10 months until she met Ralph Westlake. Ralph was born in Vancouver in 1913.
Mary said, "We fell for each other right off. The war broke out and Ralph joined the army. I had to decide if I wanted to continue with nursing school or get married. Students attending nursing school were not allowed to be married. It was an easy decision so I gave up nursing school and married Ralph. He was called to duty the day after we got married in May of 1941. He came home on a two-week leave in July and returned to Ottawa where he was stationed and I went back to Lily Lake because I was pregnant.
"I got a job working at the post office until my baby Lenore was born in the spring of 1942. Ralph was in the signal corps, a military branch responsible for military communications. When he was dispatched to Victoria as a part of the Pacific Command we moved to Victoria. In 1945 he was sent to Australia and I moved back to Lily Lake a second time."
The Pacific Command was a formation of the Canadian Army created during the Second World War to strengthen and administer home defense facilities on Canada's Pacific Coast against a possible Japanese attack.
When Mary returned to her home at Lily Lake, she bought a 60-acre farm, complete with a new barn, for $1,000. When Ralph returned from the war, they built a house on the farm and their family continued to grow.
Together they had three children; Lenore (Vic) Bowman born in 1942 and deceased in 1997, Ray (Lois) and Doug (Jetta). They have eight grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren.
The young couple farmed at Lily Lake for nine years. The children were taking school by correspondence and in 1956 it was decided that the children needed to attend a proper school so the family moved into town. Their children went on to high school in Vanderhoof.
They ran the Co-op Store in Fort Fraser from 1956-1964 and later Mary cooked at Leo's Grill. Ralph first worked at the sawmill and then for the forestry department.
In their spare time they took up curling and curled together for the next 40 years.
They lived and worked in Fort Fraser for 38 years. When Ralph had a heart attack, he was forced to retire at the age of 67.
They moved to Prince George in 1995 to be closer to medical services and their family. They took up golfing and golfed at the Pine Valley Golf Centre five days a week.
They were married for 63 years when sadly Ralph passed away in 2004 at the age of 90.
Mary said, "I took up curling at the age of 40 and started golfing at the age of 60. =I gave up both curling and golfing at the age of 90. Now I just watch it (and the Canucks hockey games) on TV. I don't need the volume on to watch it and I catch up on my sleep at the same time.
"I volunteered at the Brunswick Street senior centre until I took up carpet bowling. There are some mighty fine people at that senior centre and at the age of 100 I am still on the carpet bowling team.
"Over the past 100 years I have lived near Lily Lake, Fort Fraser, the coast and Prince George. I have learned a lot of things over the years and I have had some good times and some sad times but I lived through it all.
"I was thrilled when I won a brand-new Vauxhall car in 1960 and a trip to Disneyland in the mid-80s. These might seem like small things but they were great events in my life. Now my joy is my family, my friends and traveling to see the new babies as they arrive.
"My wonderful family recently threw me a huge party when I turned 100. I had so much fun and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the nearly 100 people who came to my party - half of them were relatives - to celebrate this event with me. It is still hard to believe that I am 100.
"My brother Alf, who lives in Vanderhoof and is 86 came to my party. Alf and I are the only two left out of the six of us. My oldest brother Stewart Ray, was also from Vanderhoof. He passed away just two months short of turning 100 years old.
"I saw many changes in this world over my life time and I would say that a memorable one would be the advances in communications. We were thrilled when we listened to the news for the first time over a radio broadcast and then many years later, we actually got a television set and saw and heard the news on TV. It was all so amazing. Now the technology includes stuff that I do not quite understand like cell phones, wireless service and stuff in the clouds. I have no clue about computers so I don't have one and I don't miss it.
"I have basically good health, maintained a good sense of humor and I like to have fun. I can tell you for sure that I did not like losing family members or my hearing. I thank the good Lord for hearing aids. Life is good!"
