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Long-time Shelburne resident celebrates her 100th birthday




Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

Friends, family, and staff, gathered at the Shelburne residence to celebrate quite a milestone.
Resident, Phyllis Montague celebrated her 100th birthday among a crowd of well wishers.
Born in England in 1918, she made a point of saying she born during the last year of the First World War.

As a young woman, she had the experience and despair of living through the London Blitz while her husband Fred was serving in the British army.

“I had my own place and I was bombed out during the war. I wasn't there at the time, fortunately,” she said. “I had two children during the war and I decided to take them out of London and took them to a nursery in the country. When I came back I went straight to the shelter. My mother asked if I had been home yet, and when I said ‘no', she said there was no home left. While I was away my house had been bombed.”

When her husband returned from the war five years later, they had their third child in 1947.
Unfortunately the destruction in London during the war caused them to think about new options for raising their children and the wondered if Canada would hold promise for their future.

“Fred's brother came here first because he wanted to find out if there was something better for us. He found it was a nice place to be and when he came back to see us he said is was the place to go.”

Fred moved to Toronto and established himself in 1954.

Both Phyllis and Fred got jobs working at the old Simpsons department store.

She then got a job working for a construction company as a bookkeeper – a job she held for 20 years.

After retiring, she and Fred decided to do some travelling.

“The girls had grown up and we started travelling. We went all over this country. From east to west and north. We went down south to Florida and places like that. When we came back we had a little home on the 11th Line (near Shelburne).

Phyllis and Fred were married for 73 years. He passed away in 2012.

Phyllis finally decided to move into a retirement home when she was 82 years old have developing some health problems.

Still lucid and remembering the details of her life, Phyllis greeted visitors in the main hall of the Residence and celebrated with a cake and the best wishes of those in attendance.
Post date: 2018-05-03 13:53:07
Post date GMT: 2018-05-03 17:53:07
Post modified date: 2018-05-03 13:53:07
Post modified date GMT: 2018-05-03 17:53:07
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