Moncton woman is Canada's oldest person !

[Jesse Joe]

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/796072


Moncton woman is Canada's oldest person
Published Friday September 18th, 2009


Margaret King Fitzgerald is one of world's top 15 supercentarians
By Brent Mazerolle
Times & Transcript Staff

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It's probably fair to say that when Margaret King Fitzgerald went to live at Moncton's Villa du Repos 10 years ago, the staff didn't anticipate how many birthday candles would be needed in the coming years.


http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=366532&size=265x0
RON WARD/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

Reg King, 90, poses with his aunt Margaret King Fitzgerald during her113th birthday celebrations.


Margaret was 103 then, a fine age most of us don't even dream of attaining.
Fast forward 1,085 birthday candles, and there was Margaret, making the first cut in yet another birthday cake this week. The Tankville native who lived most of her life in Moncton is now 113, making her the oldest known person in Canada.

According to the Guineess Book of World Records, she is believed to be among the 15 oldest people on Earth. And with the death of 115-year-old Gertrude Baines in California last week, the age spread between Margaret and the "newest" oldest person on Earth, 114-year-old Kama Chinen of Japan, is only about 16 months.

Queen Victoria was still on the throne when Margaret King was born in Tankville on Sept. 16, 1896. She was seven when the Wright brothers first flew in 1903, 13 when the first airplane flew in Canada at Baddeck. She was a woman of 22 when the First World War ended, and a month shy of her 49th birthday when the Second World War ended.

While some of those who attended her birthday party this week had BlackBerrys on their hips and digital video cameras in their hands, motion picture film was a brand new technology when Margaret was born and telephones were still exceedingly rare.

Charles Bourque, the recreation director at the Villa, said yesterday Margaret has been sleeping a lot more the past six months or so, but she really rose to the occasion for her party.
"She was having the best day in months," he said. "It was a really good day." She even cut the cake, with a bit of help.

While it's hard to pinpoint anything she might have done differently to explain her longevity, Margaret does seem to have a few things on her side.

First, she's female, as are most of the oldest living people, or supercentarians as the folks on the plus side of 100 are called. The oldest man alive, Montana's Walter Breuning, turns 113 on Monday. That means all 15 of the very oldest people are all women.

Second, Margaret's a Maritimer. The second oldest person in the world is Mary Josephine Ray of New Hampshire, who was born an Arsenault on Prince Edward Island May 17, 1895, exactly one week after Kama Chinen was born in Japan.

Third, Margaret for a time lived the French lifestyle, spending part of her life in St. Pierre et Miquelon. The longest living person of all time whose age was indisputably verified was Parisian Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at age 122.

[Jesse Joe]

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/830984


Canada's oldest resident dies, age 113
Published Wednesday October 21st, 2009

Moncton woman lived in parts of three centuries

By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff

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Margaret (King) Fitzgerald is remembered this morning not so much as the oldest known Canadian, but as a friendly, kind soul who wasn't afraid of hard work or the challenges life tends to throw at all of us.


http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=385251&size=265x0
RON WARD/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

Margaret (King) Fitzgerald celebrates her 113th birthday recently with nephew Reg King.


Margaret was 113 when she died peacefully of natural causes yesterday morning.
"A regular farm girl, you could say," her nephew Reg King of Tankville, where Margaret was born and grew up, said yesterday of his aunt and good friend.
"According to my father, she'd rather work in the fields than in the house."

King remembers his aunt fondly as a hard worker, born a twin to his uncle Leo to a family of five boys and three girls (Edmond, Wilfred, Waldo, Edward who was King's father, Leo, Alice, Lena and Margaret,) with the twins being the youngest, born Sept. 16, 1896 to parents Reuben King and Catherine, née Godin.

Her father worked in the railroad industry in Moncton but moved the family to Tankville, now located on the northern fringe of Moncton on Elmwood Drive, where they started farming as well.

On the occasion of her birthdays after Margaret eclipsed the 100-year mark, the resident of Villa du Repos on Elmwood Drive would recall working the fields, tending the cows and horses and carrying in the firewood in an era that predated telephones and electricity. In the winter, they'd skate on the lake in what is now Irishtown Nature Park. She and her best friend down the road would signal to each other to come over to visit by running flags up the tall poles that stood in their front yards.

Later, Margaret decided to find herself a job in the city and was employed by a denturist, the late Dr. Reginald Fitzgerald, whom she married. Soon, the couple were off to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, where her husband would work until his death there almost 20 years later.

Margaret then returned to Moncton with their only child Reggie (Reggie's twin had died in infancy) and she used the business skills she acquired as her husband's assistant to open a corner store in Humphrey, which she ran for several years.
"But she continued making teeth," King chuckled.
"She was quite handy that way."

King remembered his aunt as very likeable, someone who educated herself very well and who enjoyed reading. She never drank or smoked.
Most believe Margaret was among the oldest 15, or fewer, people living on Earth.

If you can imagine it, Queen Victoria still ruled when she was born; she was seven when the Wright brothers first flew in 1903; was 13 when the first aircraft flew at Baddeck, N.S.; was 22 when the First World War ended; 48 when the Second World War ended.

The former Tankville School which she attended closed many decades ago and has been renovated into a museum for many years now.
Longevity runs in the King family lines. Reg is now 90. Margaret's father lived well into his 90s and his mother was about 90 when she died, though Margaret's son Reginald predeceased her.

Margaret enjoyed good health until she started to sleep more and more and talk less often in the past few months, but she still enjoyed visitors at the nursing home and especially back scratches which the doting staff at Villa du Repos were happy to offer.

[jj]

thx, jjo...must have been the good air that kept her going:)

inlaw roots are from St. Pierre et Miquelon and i'd like to go there sometime (and Nwfld)...I'll have to bottle some of that air so they can pour it into my inevitable O2 tank....wow, 122

[Jesse Joe]

it is actually 113 ! :)

[jj]

Third, Margaret for a time lived the French lifestyle, spending part of her life in St. Pierre et Miquelon. The longest living person of all time whose age was indisputably verified was Parisian Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at age 122.

:)

[Jesse Joe]

Sorry my mistake jj, you see I'm losing it again. :)