107-year-old marks birthday with sister, who’s 105
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/02/2019 (2468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hazel Skuce celebrated her birthday Thursday with her younger sister, Clara Hornibrook.
What makes this birthday so memorable is that Skuce is 107. Hornibrook is 105.
“I feel all right,” shrugged Skuce, as friends and family gathered in a room at Hillcrest Place personal care home for ice cream cake.
Now confined to a wheelchair, the longtime teacher is extremely hard of hearing, but her eyes sparkle as a reporter asks about her life.
Born in 1912, she and her sisters (one died a few years ago) lived with their parents a few kilometres from Rivers and attended a one-room country schoolhouse.
She remembers well the more than five-kilometre hike to school — except, of course, when it got too cold.
“We wanted to walk, but they (her parents) didn’t want us to walk,” she laughed.
Skuce would go on to teach in many country schools, herself, as well as in schools around Brandon.
“Yes, I enjoyed my work,” she said, “but I just wondered if I was doing a decent job.”
There were, of course, occasions when teachers would like to “kick all the little brats out,” Skuce chuckled.
Her first husband, Dick Patmore, ran a nursery in Brandon. He died and she remarried, but never had any children of her own.
Her second husband’s name was John Skuce.
Birds were her passion, and for 40 years she was a member of the local naturalists society, where she made a lifetime of friends.
When asked the perfunctory question about her secret to a long life, Skuce said there really isn’t one.
“I think what happens, happens,” she said. “I’m just happy today and the next day and so on.”
Asked, then, if longevity has nothing to do with staying away from booze, Skuce broke into hearty laughter and gently touched the reporter’s chin.
“No! That isn’t anything, really, in my life,” she exclaimed.
The two sisters don’t see much of each other, anymore.
Hornibrook lives at Lions Manor, and after being wheeled into the room, she stood up and gave her big sister a hug.
“I’ve got hearing aids, but I’m deaf,” said the former nurse after being introduced to a reporter.
In addition to teaching at various hospitals in the United States and in Rivers, Hornibrook used to dabble in art, but that’s all done with now.
“I used to be drawing landscapes a lot, but now, because of my sight, I don’t do any of it now,” she smiled.
Hornibrook said she didn’t expect to be celebrating her sister’s 107th birthday at the age of 105.
Once, while working in a hospital, she met a man who was 90, she said.
“And I said to him ‘Oh, isn’t that something? You’re 90,’” she said, “and he laughed.
“Nowadays, you don’t think that 90 is old, do you?” Hornibrook said.
» brobertson@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @BudRobertson4