Our Stories

Don Simpson watched the pack of large dogs as he made his way to the well, pail in hand. He was five years old, and had been asked to fetch a pail of water by the woman who owned the farm he and his mother lived on. When he got back to the farm, he asked the woman about the large dogs he had seen.

Confused, the woman said there were no dogs. When they went to investigate what Don had seen, they discovered a pack of wolves.

“My mother said, ‘I’m not going to have my boy eaten by a wolf, so we’re off to Vancouver,’” Don said with a laugh.

That was almost 100 years ago. Don recently celebrated his 104^th birthday at Mayfair Terrace Retirement Residence in Port Coquitlam with his friends and family. There was also a surprise guest. Norm, a 103-year-old gentleman who lives in Port Coquitlam, was invited to Don’s birthday party after a Mayfair team member started speaking with him at a local pub.

“How many over-100-year-olds do you know who hang out together?” said Meghan Burrows, lifestyle consultant at Mayfair. “[Don and Norm] sat right beside each other and they were able to chat and share some stories.”

Norm stayed for cake and champagne before going home. That night, Meghan called Global TV and asked them to wish Don a happy 104^th birthday, which they did.

Don enjoyed his birthday party, saying, “I’ll tell you it was a whopper, took me a while to get over it.”

“Don sees the glass as half-full all the time, and he’s the life of the party,” Meghan said. “He still puts up his Christmas lights every year, even though his vision isn’t perfect. He has more life than most 25-year-olds that I know.”

Twelve years after Don’s mother moved them from the farm in Alberta to Vancouver, BC, Don was attending Vancouver Tech. Almost every day, he would cross paths with a pretty girl going to Britannia High School. After mustering up some courage, he asked her out.

“Well, you’ll have to ask my mother,” the girl said.

Don did. Sometime later they were married, and had 2 boys.

Don worked for both BC Electric and BC Hydro. He laid submarine cables for many years, which are cables that lay on the floor of lakes and seas, carrying telecommunication signals.

In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, Don was 26. At the time, the military had a shortage of telephone installers, and so Don got the job. Afterwards, Don continued to work for BC Hydro. He worked there for 35 years, until he retired at the age of 64.

In his youth, Don’s job put him in close quarters with technology. He said that he thinks the way it’s evolved is amazing.

As a child, radio was the main means of communication. “[My family would] always stay up until 9 o’clock to hear the 9 o’clock news from the province newspaper,” Don said. “Now, technology is just getting so that we’re long past the Dick Tracy wristwatch… Gosh, you got cameras now that give you the directions and tell you where you are — just everything! And they’re common place, everybody can buy them.”

Now, Don continues to enjoy life, and his enjoyment of life is his secret to longevity.

“I’ve been interested in life ever since I started,” Don said. “I enjoy everything we do.”

“Don is very much the person who brings everyone else together,” Meghan said. “He’s the first person to get dressed-up at any event, and he’s just fun.”

“Canada” is a poem written by Robert Palm, a talented poet and artist. He is proud to share this poem in honour of Canada’s 150^th anniversary.

Clement stands from his chair, taking the arm of an old colleague to do so. The two served together as firemen for 24 years, today they walk down the runway of a fashion show held in Clement’s honour.

Sometimes the shades swirl, forming a colour-sucking vortex in the sky, other times a shoe is turned into a work of art, or sticks become the makings of a centrepiece. Anything the mind can imagine, these blooming artists are encouraged to explore.

Eight Sienna graduates line up, smiles on their faces, as they receive their Director of Care Clinical Leadership certificate. Most of them have been in the director of care role for over a year, but they still felt they learned a great deal from the course.

The room is filled with a buzz of chatter, interrupted by the constant sound of scissors snipping away at brightly-coloured milk bags.

It would be dark, and often cool, when 16-year-old Gord McGregor would walk his girlfriend, Margaret, home from the skating rink in Dundee, Scotland. The two had met at that skating rink, and Gord was sure to always walk Margaret home. Afterwards, it would take him nearly 45 minutes to walk back to his house.

On August 14, 1974 Doris Prosser began her first day of work as a nurse’s aide at Muskoka Nursing Home. She was 17 years old.

In 1983, Ivy Slater joined her local curling club on an exchange to Scotland, where the sport was invented 500 years before. She says it is the highlight of her curling experience, which saw her in the club four times a week for 30 years.

When Villa Leonardo Gambin Care Community in Woodbridge first opened there were more team members than residents. It’s something that’s certainly changed in the last 13 years, but Vanessa Romero, winner of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association’s Nursing Senior Leadership Award and Director of Care at Villa Leonardo, still remembers it fondly.

Any pastor on Earth can tell you that the devil is full of lies and deceit, but most don’t prove their point with card tricks.

Clover, a jet-black, 120lb potbelly pig, walks out to a round of applause. Residents, seated on lawn chairs, watch as Clover performs tricks. She’s happy to do her figure eights and push a ball with her snout. She’ll even roll over for a belly rub.

When Charlotte Daly found a stray kitten in a parking lot, she named him Raider and took him home to meet her other cat, Sparkie. Their adventures together became the inspiration for a book.