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A Calgary senior celebrated her 100th birthday in style Saturday with a celebration hosted at her long-term care home.
Marion Greene reached the century mark with a party on the front patio of Extendicare Hillcrest, a long-term care home in northwest Calgary, and a drive-by salute from city fire trucks.
“She’s an amazing woman and we’re so lucky to have her as her as our mom, and so many people as lucky to have her as a friend,” said Michael Greene, one of Marion’s four children.
“She brightens people’s lives up.”
Born on her family’s kitchen table in Copetown, Ont., in 1921, Greene worked as a teacher after graduating from Queen’s University.
During her studies, she met Bob Greene and soon tied the knot, beginning a 65-year marriage. Bob, an Anglican priest and a Calgary alderman in the late 1960s, died in 2017 at age 94.
The couple took up residence across North America during their partnership, living in Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Philadelphia, as well as several rural Alberta towns.
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The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges for Greene as well as the care home, which recorded one of the most severe viral outbreaks in Alberta during the pandemic’s first wave. Nearly 100 total COVID-19 cases were detected, and 20 facility residents died of the virus.
Greene broke her femur shortly before the pandemic began and struggled through weeks of isolation. But her resiliency shone through, her son said.
“It was just a really tough time, and we didn’t think she was going to make it to her 99th birthday,” Michael said. “But since then, almost every day, she said, ‘How long until my 100th birthday?’”
The pandemic limited the scope of celebrations Saturday, after a small COVID-19 outbreak at Hillcrest that only resolved earlier this week put the event into question.
For Greene’s 95th birthday, up to 90 people gathered for a backyard celebration, something Michael said he’d like to do again after the pandemic.
“But we’re very, very grateful for the occasion and the fact we can do something,” Michael said.
“And we are so grateful to all the health care workers at Hillcrest, who have taken such good care for our mother and kept her mentally and emotionally and physically healthy through this very trying time.”
jherring@postmedia.com
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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