Excitement was buzzing in the Rising Sun Long Term Care as staff, residents and family celebrated an unusual milestone – the 100th birthday of two residents.
Betty Hoglund celebrated her centennial year on March 30 and Genevieve Dallas will celebrate hers on April 29.
Both attribute their longevity to the support of family.
“I have a wonderful family,” said Hoglund, who is blind and partially deaf. “I’m just glad I lived to be this old. All in all, I consider myself very fortunate. I’m living a good life.”
Granddaughter Shannon McClelland, who works at the long-term care facility, said her Nana is the matriarch of the close-knit family.
She said Hoglund was born and raised in the Invermere valley. She married Edvin Hoglund in 1933 and together they raised one son.
Edvin was a grader operator and Hoglund worked in a doctor’s office for many years.
The couple tried their hand at farming – from raising chickens to dairy cows.
McClelland said they were always up for a challenge and enjoyed traveling around the world, camping and being in the outdoors.
“They were hard working people,” she said.
After Elvin passed away, Hoglund moved to Salmon Arm, but McClelland convinced her Nana to move to Black Diamond six years ago so she could be close to family.
Life was very different for fellow long term care resident Dallas.
While she spent the first five years of her life in Trochu, Dallas’ parents sent all but the three youngest of their nine children to France where her father was raised believing they would get a better education.
When Dallas returned to Canada 11 years later, she could only speak French.
Dallas began to adapt to the English language and eight years later married Bill Dallas.
The couple moved to Longview, where Bill worked as a field operator at a tank farm for Battery 17, and had four sons and one daughter.
In 1950, the couple moved to Turner Valley and Dallas remained in their home until she was 92-years-old. She stayed in Trochu briefly while awaiting placement at the Rising Fun, where she moved four years ago.
Dallas’ 100-year milestone is not rare in her family. She has four living siblings who are 103, 96, 90 and 89.
“We have the longevity gene,” laughed Dallas’ daughter Tonie Ruskowsky.
Ruskowsky said her mom taught her French, and recalls having conversations with her mother in the language when she didn’t want her brothers to overhear.
She said her mom was always home with the family, and that she had joined the Catholic Women’s League and worked two years as a nurses aid.
She attributes part of Dallas’ long life to her health conscious ways – keeping a garden, taking long walks and square dancing.
Dallas now walks with a walker for short distances, and has become more forgetful and quiet – but Ruskowsky said she remains kind, loving and caring.
More importantly, Dallas has family within reach.
Ruskowsky said the entire family gets together five times a year, and at least one family member visits Dallas at the Rising Sun Long Term Care almost daily.
“She’s been very fortunate we are all so close,” she said, adding she and three siblings live close by. “Her family was always important.”
