Mary Brown celebrated her 104th birthday at the Tofield United Church on Saturday, February 3. Food, cake, and balloons filled the basement of the church, along with friends and family who gathered to celebrate with Brown. She was born on February 2, 1920, in Govan, SK, to Geoffrey and Mary Hollis, the first of five children. The family moved to Calgary when Brown was seven, and her father passed away when she was eight.
“Her father was killed in an explosion in Calgary when she was eight and a half. She was the oldest of the five, so she grew up in a hurry. That’s a memory she often recounts,” said Brown’s daughter, Judy Walde.
Brown met Roy Brown at a skating rink in south Calgary, and she was married at age 20 on April 6, 1940. Roy and Mary shared a birthday, with Roy being four years older than Mary to the day. They lived in Calgary and moved to Kelowna, BC, in the late 1960s. Walde said that next month it will have been 30 years since Roy passed away. Brown moved to Tofield in 1997.
Brown has three children, Lynn Gates, Allan Brown, and Judy Walde. She has nine grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild who is five months old.
“She’s already talking about next year’s birthday. She can’t believe she’s 104. Every year she says she can’t believe it,” Walde said.
Brown currently lives in Tofield Long Term Care and Walde says she enjoys the company of whomever comes to visit her.
Kari Janzen
Staff Reporter
