http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...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
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.
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.
Moncton woman is Canada's oldest person !
