Anna Maisey was always the one lending a hand to friends and neighbours, but at the age of 100 years she struggles with being on the receiving end.
It wouldn’t be bad living to 100 if you could take care of yourself completely,” said Maisey, while sitting comfortably in her Sandstone Lodge room surrounded by family. “When you have people drive you and do your wash that’s when it gets to be tough. I just never thought I would live this long and still be here at 100.”
Hanging proudly on her wall is an oversized collage of her five children, 10 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and six great, great grandchildren, as well as framed certificates from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Pope Francis congratulating her on her centennial year.
Maisey, whose own mom lived to the age of 96, lived a modest life and she was used to looking after herself, and many others. As a middle child of seven girls and three boys, she spent her younger years helping to cook, clean and take care of her younger siblings.
The family lived 13 miles from the Village of Champion and one mile from the country school, where Maisey and her siblings walked almost every day. When the snow was too deep, Maisey’s older brothers often carried the younger children on their shoulders or they drove the horse and buggy to school.
In Grade 9, Maisey attended Harmony School in Champion, but only studied a year before moving in with her older sister, doing housework and other jobs to earn money.
“There was no more money for my schooling and a lot of the little kids were coming up after me,” she said. “I did whatever housework I could find. Most of the time you just moved in and you were just one of the family.”
Maisey also worked in a cook car pulled by a horse to arrange meals for farmers at harvest time. She prepared coffee and three meals a day for about a dozen men.
One of Maisey’s greatest pleasures was kicking up her heels at country dances every Friday night.
It was during one of these dances that she met Lorne, who she later married. Lorne ran the Alberta Wheat Pool elevator in Herronton, east of Blackie.
The couple raised their five children in a home across from the grain elevator. Maisey took the odd job working as a janitor at the school or at the local grocery store, and joined the Ladies Country Club, which hosted social events and fundraisers in the community.
The couple retired in Calgary in 1972, where they lived for 14 years before moving to High River. Lorne passed away in 1995 at the age of 82, within a month of the death of one of their daughters.
Maisey remained in High River until the 2013 southern Alberta flood destroyed the Medicine Tree Manor where she lived. She moved in with her daughter for a few months and then she and her sister Lucy, now 98, moved to the Sandstone Lodge in 2014.
Surrounded by friends and family, Maisey wants for very little.
She maintains a sharp mind and has won a few battles along the way, including an angioplasty, colon cancer and breast cancer.
Lorna Schmaltz, who visits her mom regularly from her Calgary home, said she’s maintained a positive attitude in life and that’s what she’s admired most about her mother.
“She taught us how to live life to the fullest,” she said. “She always had a great outlook.”
Schmaltz said her mom has always been a caring person - there to help anyone who needed it.
“She’s never been one to think badly of people,” she said. “If somebody needed help she was always willing to pitch in. She’s very close to her family.”
Though she was not one for the outdoors, particularly in the colder seasons, Maisey spent endless hours in her garden, recalls Schmaltz.
“They were always in the garden,” she said of both parents. “It would take them four hours twice a week to pick raspberries.”
Gardening was one of Maisey’s life passions. Dancing was another.
“She needed to be out on the dance floor,” Schmaltz said. “If you were sitting on a chair she would get you up and dance.”
At Maisey’s centennial birthday party on Oct 29, she accepted donations to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a charity of the Catholic Church, collecting several food items and more than $500.
