The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Hannah Hillier has learned a lot in her exceptionally lengthy life, but she's not quite sure what's behind her longevity. 'I can't answer that one because I don't know. I'm just an ordinary person,' says Hillier, who on Monday turned 100 surrounded by family and friends. Of course Hillier is hardly an ordinary person. She is nothing short of remarkable and after a century has not slowed down nearly as much as one would expect. Though her vision and hearing fail her somewhat, she remains mentally sharp, highly mobile and fiercely independent. Hillier was born Hannah Francis Marshall on April 29, 1913 in Hamiota, Manitoba, a small farm town northwest of Brandon. Different world It was a different world back then. Sir Robert Borden, the man on the $100 bill, was prime minister. Canada had about one-fifth as many people as it does today. And the First World War was still more than a year away. One of three children, Hannah matured into a bright young woman. Farming wasn't for her, so she found work in Brandon. It was there, at a dance, that she met a handsome young Second World War vet named George Hillier, who had suffered a major leg injury in France before the end of the war. A farm boy born in Newfoundland and raised in Saskatchewan, George had worked for HBMS in Flin Flon before deploying overseas, where he manned anti-aircraft guns. Now back on friendly soil recovering from his injury, he and Hannah fell head over heels for each other. 'It was the real thing,' Hannah recalls. See 'Saved' on pg. Continued from pg. Hannah and George wed in 1946 and made their home in Flin Flon, where George again found steady work at HBMS. They saved up for a honeymoon that in 1948 took them to the World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Braves. It was the first of many exciting trips they would take. In Flin Flon, Hannah landed work at P.K. Hardware and later the Mary Jayne women's clothing store before the couple started a family. In the 1950s Hannah gave birth to two children, daughter Donalda and son Allan, and became what we would today call a stay-at-home mom. Isolated Flin Flon felt extremely isolated in those days. Long-distance travel was difficult and the Internet was still decades away from shrinking the world. Like so many early residents, the Hilliers found solace in a close-knit group of friends. They also embraced the nature that surrounded them. They had a cabin at Beaver Lake, and Hannah vividly recalls the long drives on the old gravel road to get there. 'There were about 200 curves in that road,' she says. 'You would arrive at the lake and your eyebrows were white from the dust.' The Hilliers moved into a couple of different locations before settling at a home on Boam Street, where Hannah still lives more than five decades later. The children grew up and forged their own paths in life _ Donalda as a nurse in Calgary and Allan as an accountant in Trail, B.C. As the years went by, Hannah and George welcomed five grandchildren, then five great-grandchildren. The couple maintained a strong marriage throughout the decades, something Hannah credits simply to 'being happy.' Aside from travelling, Hannah and George loved dancing and hosting dinner parties even in their later years. The Hilliers were in their 66th year of matrimony when George passed away in December 2011. For Hannah it was the end of a chapter, but not the end of the book. That much was evident Monday afternoon as 100-plus friends and family members crammed the Northminster Memorial Church hall for her 100th birthday. Donalda and Allan sat by her side, with an iPad linked to the 'Net allowing Hannah's immediate family to attend from a distance. The last word of the party went to Hannah, who rose from her chair and, without bothering to use the handheld microphone being passed around, addressed the crowd. 'I would like to say thank you all for coming and all your good wishes,' she said. Back to the question of Hannah's longevity, Donalda points to her mom's approach to life. 'She's always been a hard worker and she's always given back so much to everybody she's ever met,' says Donalda, whose married name is Fisher. Hannah also benefits from impressive genes. Her grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 98 and her mother was 96 before leaving this world. People can't help but smile when Hannah points out that her dad 'only' made it to 82, back when that was an uncommonly advanced age. Hannah has endured her share of loss over her lifetime. She has bid farewell not only to George, but also to many friends and acquaintances. But this centenarian just keeps moving forward, treating each day like the gift it is. 'Most of my friends are gone, but I have quite a number of (newer) friends that are younger than myself now, and we visit back and forth,' Hannah says. From that visiting back and forth, Hannah is still learning new things every day. Just don't ask her to explain her longevity. In her eyes, she is but an ordinary person.
