Eva Shank celebrated her 100th birthday at party held for her at Brookside Village in Westlock April 9. She officially became a centenarian April 12.
On April 12 Eva Shank became the latest Westlock resident to reach the age of 100.
The daughter of Mary and Edward Parrent, she was born on a farm about a mile and a half north of Vimy on April 12, 1919.
Though her birth certificate suggests April 10 as her birth date, she insists that is incorrect. She was one of five children; three boys and two girls.
“Imagine being a 100 years old,” she said last week. “I never thought I’d reach that high. I can’t believe it!”
A cousin, Rita Milla told her just the other day, “The reason you’re here is because you pray for everybody.”
“Her job’s not done yet,” added her daughter Shirley, who lives with her at Brookside Village.
As a young girl on the farm Eva didn’t do chores outside, but did mostly housework, because, as she says, her mom did the milking and other outside chores. It was only after she got married that she did outside chores.
In her youth she attended school at Vimy and played baseball. Her family relates she held the positions of pitcher and third base. She attended church in Vimy, where she was baptized and had all her sacraments.
She met her husband, Albert Shank, when he attended a dance at Vimy. He was born in Athabasca and raised on a farm northwest of there near Island Lake.
They were married in Vimy on Feb. 16, 1942, and moved to his home near Island Lake where he taught at schools in the area. Their eldest son was born there at the homestead.
It was pretty isolated, Eva recalls, “But we made the best of it.”
Later they moved to Legal, where Albert continued teaching.
In 1948, they moved to Westlock, where the rest of their nine children of seven boys and two girls were born.
The move to Westlock was a kind of early draft pick sort of thing. Westlock Chevrolet auto dealer Harvey Doherty was the town’s Mr. Baseball, and had seen Albert play and encouraged him to come to Westlock.
Shirley said, “Mr. Doherty even found a home for them.”
The family said their mom has always been very active in the Catholic church, and was a Catholic Women’s League member for 50 years after joining in 1957.
In 1991, she and Albert moved into Brookside Village and he passed away just a few years later.
Though she had driven a car in earlier years, Eva never had a licence.
Her daughter Shirley took her driving around town, and at age 70, she obtained her driver’s licence, the same day that Shirley’s 16-year-old daughter got hers. Eva only stopped driving about three years ago.
“It’s been a good life. Nothing to complain about,” she says, “Except getting old.”
She feels she is doing quite well, but says now her knees are giving up on her.
Her secret to good health and longevity?
“I was raised on good home food, guess that’s why I’m healthy,” she says.
On April 6, a large portion of the family of 61 children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren gathered at Vimy Hall for a birthday celebration for Eva, while another open celebration was held for friends and neighbours in the gathering place at Brookside Village April 9.
Most of the family members live fairly close by, or at least in Alberta. The furthest away is her one son, Father Neil Shank, who lives in Toronto.
