Active lifestyle credited for long life

An Okotoks woman proved you’re never too old to try new things at her 100th birthday party last week.

Edna Miyashiro, a resident at Heartland by Revera, tried her very first taste of champagne during a toast by her friends and family at her centennial birthday celebration on April 25.

The verdict? She’d rather have tea any day.

“It’s terrible,” Miyashiro said with a laugh. “It went down the wrong chute and it burned like crazy. I’m not used to drinking liquor.”

With a warm cup of tea in her hands instead, she shared snippets of her life.

The mother of three was born in Dalmeny, Sask., just north of Saskatoon. She was the second youngest of nine children and attended school in Dalmeny until Grade 10.

“I couldn’t get any books,” said Miyashiro. “My dad was too poor to buy books, so I quit.”

She moved to Saskatoon, where she took a job cleaning houses for $3 per month. It was the only work she could find at the time, as a young girl without education and training, she said.

“Now I let them do the cleaning for me,” said Miyashiro. “All I do is make my bed, that’s my job. I still like to make my own bed. Well, they tried, but you should have seen it. I do it myself.”

Housecleaning ended up being her career for the remainder of her life, even after she left her first husband and moved to Calgary with her two eldest children – Randy and Dean Tronsgard – in 1956. In Calgary, Miyashiro gave birth to her daughter, Lindy Miyashiro. She is now the proud grandmother to six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

“She lived to look after the family, like every mother and grandmother,” said Lindy. “She’s always been there, like every mother, you would hope would be there for her kids and grandkids.”

Before leaving school, Miyashiro earned many medals in track and field, particularly for sprinting, and played baseball as a short stop – well enough that son Dean said she could have been one of the ladies from A League of Their Own.

Her love for sports and activity continued as she bowled right up until age 90, when it began to get a little more difficult. Two broken hips have her in a wheelchair now, but even that doesn’t stop the competitive 100-year-old.

Her birthday party began with an hour of bowling on the Wii at Heartland, where she stood beside her wheelchair to get a better range of motion and heckled her party guests – including Mayor Bill Robertson – when she started throwing strikes and beating them all.

“She’s very competitive, even still,” said Lindy. “She says, ‘I don’t like to lose.’ I think that’s where we all got that from, too.”

That’s not all she passed along. Lindy played ball growing up, and her mother would take her outside to play catch and hit balls in their spare time.

It’s her adventurous spirit her daughter admires most.

“She’s done so much – she’s gone up in a helicopter, hot air balloons, things that I would love to do, and all by herself,” said Lindy. “There’s no fear in that woman.”

Miyashiro was also very musical, said son Dean Tronsgard, who enjoyed a 27-year career with the RCMP band and carries on with the Salvation Army band in Ottawa today.

“My mother was my biggest influence with music, because apparently when I was very young she used to sing songs with me, and then when I was old enough to sing the song with her, she’d sing the harmony,” said Tronsgard.

Though she can’t be as active now, Miyashiro still insists on challenging herself. It was her goal to reach the century mark. Her family has now challenged her to beat Italian Emma Morano, who passed away April 15 at the age of 117.

“No thank you,” said Miyashiro, shaking her head vehemently. “I don’t want to live that long.”

Though Lindy says the secret to her mother’s long life lies in her active lifestyle and generally stress-free life, Miyashiro herself isn’t willing to share the wisdom behind reaching 100.

“I don’t wanna,” she said. “Keep them guessing.”