My mom, Marie Rose Case Nodge, died peacefully on March 8, 2023 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan where she lived for the last eight decades. Some say she passed, we say with flying colours.
A cheerful 105-year old well-known for packing a lot into her years, our mom said "Yes" more often than "No" when an activity was suggested, as these pictures from her later years clearly show.
She hiked with grandchildren and even skipped, not often, but if someone handed her a skipping rope her instinct was to give it a try.
She skipped on the driveway just long enough for me to take this picture, then set the rope down and said with a smile "That skipping rope doesn't work very well".
She gathered a few spring crocuses every year into her eighties and nineties. (That isn't a Hutterite with her, it's a former version of me!)
Marie didn't pilot this plane but she could have. She got her pilot license in the 1950s but was satisfied to go for a ride at a local air show, age 93 in 2011.
Here she is, age 94, picking saskatoons at McLean's berry patch by the airport east of town, where the first pail was free if you were over 90. She picked with concentration and pleasure, I expect it reminded her of childhood when berry-picking was a family leisure activity and everyone had a pail tied to their belt.
At age 93 her balance and coordination were just dandy as she glided, or you could say shuffled, alongside my sister Isabelle.
A local journalist caught this skier in her favourite green coat on the trails at the city golf course in Swift Current. It wasn't exactly a daily event at age 96, but my mom couldn't resist the opportunity to give it a whirl when I offered her my skis. Fearless, that old girl.
In July that year the water was chilly and a little murky in the South Saskatchewan River but Marie needed no coaxing. In she went with her youngest son!
She swam with dolphins at the Saskatchewan Landing!
She danced with her three sons at her 90th birthday party.
And was still going strong 10 years later at her 100th birthday extravaganza! Live music by the Family Band.
Marie's good health in old age was undoubtedly helped by her stretching exercises which she did faithfully for many years. I'm sure she was more flexible than any of her five kids and certainly more dedicated to an exercise routine.
She was 98 years old when I took these pictures. The positions were part of her daily stretching at the time and when I expressed concern about injuring herself, she assured me, without pausing and without puffing, that she was just fine.
I have videos with her commentary from that morning but technical difficulties have interfered and I can't get them transferred properly to my blog platform. But you get the idea.
Marie loved any excuse to get outdoors, in fact she didn't need an excuse, and in her later years happily wheeled herself onto the deck most days to enjoy a little fresh air and the view of the Swift Current Creek.
With her youngest son Gord on her 102nd birthday, January 8, 2020. This was probably her last dance at Willow Creek Manor, the Care Home where she happily spent her last four years.
We enjoyed tea in our van on Mothers Day, May 2022.
Yes, our Mom was a role model for sure and will be remembered with love and admiration by many.
She died on International Women's Day.