{"id":641,"date":"2016-02-08T00:17:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T05:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=641"},"modified":"2016-02-08T00:17:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T05:17:09","slug":"a-century-of-active-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/activeseniorsdigest.ca\/wp_activeseniorsdigest\/?p=641","title":{"rendered":"A century of active living"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"100th_birthday\"<\/a>
Lucy Ayres was joined by friends and family at her 100th birthday celebration, including her granddaughter Kristen Ayres Maechtel and three of her great grandchildren, Mia, Griffin and Kali.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Graeme McNaughton<\/strong>\/Active Senior’s Digest<\/p>\n

Lucy Ayres is the queen of her retirement home. And that\u2019s no exaggeration \u2013 she has the crown to prove it.<\/p>\n

Ayres\u2019 title as the prom queen of Amica in Whitby is just one of the many stories she can tell about her 100 well-lived years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a senior prom contest, and people here all put in ballots and I was the prom queen,\u201d Ayres says with a laugh. \u201cEverybody says, \u2018Oh, I know Lucy.\u2019 I got my crown and my sash and the whole bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayres recently celebrated her 100th birthday at Amica, and tells Active Senior\u2019s Digest that she credits her vitality to keeping active.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping active, I think, is the main thing. You know, I was always active. I always liked sports. I still follow mostly hockey and baseball and football. Those are the three things I really follow,\u201d she says, adding her favourite teams are the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Blue Jays. \u201cI don\u2019t follow the American football. I can\u2019t keep up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports ambitions aside, Ayres also keeps active by taking part in different classes and activities going on at Amica.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something going on here all the time, and I take part in everything. I go to exercise in the morning and then we come down and have a social hour,\u201d she says. \u201cI did that since I first started coming here because that\u2019s where you get to meet people. And that\u2019s why I think I have so many friends here because so many people know me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayres also took French lessons at the home, rekindling something she had learned many years before.<\/p>\n

\"100th_birthday_girl\"<\/a>\u201cI took five years of French in high school. Before I started working, my first job was at the St. Catharines Chamber of Commerce because I used to do \u2013 it was all voluntary, I didn\u2019t get paid, it was all for the experience \u2013 but because I knew French, we used to have letters come in from people from Quebec that wanted things, and I could answer their letters,\u201d she says. So I stayed there for about three months until I got my regular job.\u201d<\/p>\n

That job would be working at a car dealership.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I graduated from high school, I thought I don\u2019t want to be a nurse, I didn\u2019t want to be anything. I had nothing planned,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I thought, oh I\u2019ll be a school teacher. I thought they get two months holiday in the summer, so I was thinking of the time off. And so I applied to normal school and my sister, who was a teacher, said \u2018You will never make a teacher, you haven\u2019t got the patience.\u2019 And I thought that no, I really don\u2019t want to be a teacher. So I went to St. Catharines Business College, and I really liked that. And that\u2019s when I started working for this (Pontiac and Buick) dealership, and I stayed there until I got married.\u201d<\/p>\n

After she got married, Ayres moved with her late husband to Brantford, where she stayed until she moved to Amica. Unlike her days in St. Catharines, Ayres stayed at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never worked. In those days, they didn\u2019t believe in you working. But before that, I worked in the Pontiac Buick dealership in the office, right up until I got married, right after I graduated from high school,\u201d she says. \u201cBut my husband felt, in those days, that women didn\u2019t work, where as now everybody does, of course. I just stayed home and raised my two boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, living in Whitby and closer to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Ayres is making sure she stays active so that she can keep living the great life she has.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I can keep it up here, I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Graeme McNaughton\/Active Senior’s Digest Lucy Ayres is the queen of her retirement home. 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