Westlock gained a new centenarian last week.
Annie Hackman (née Semenchuk), who currently resides in the Pembina Lodge, turned 100 on Feb. 27.
“I’m not very happy about that,” she said. “It’s too old.”
Hackman is the oldest remaining member of her family, and was joined on the day before her birthday for a party at the Pembina Lodge by her two children, Mary and Mike.
Hackman was born in Ukraine on Feb. 27, 1914, and moved to Canada in 1931 at the age of 16, along with her three younger siblings.
She and her family eventually made their way to the Westlock area, settling onto a farm and homestead near what is now the Black Bear Grazing Reserve.
Mike said those early years were tough; his mother had left her friends behind in Ukraine, and without a grasp on the English language, she didn’t have an easy time making friends.
There were a few Ukrainians in the area, but they were old and so building friendships didn’t go too well.
Hackman married her husband Dmetro in 1933, Mike said, and from that point on life got better.
The couple’s first homestead was not far from where Hackman had first lived in the area, but the land was rocky and it was hard to find water.
In 1941 they moved to a new plot of land with fewer rocks and more water.
“It was a good life on the farm,” Hackman said.
The farm was a lively place with a mix of animals all over, including chickens, pigs, cattle and horses. There was also a garden.
“It was good gardening,” she said. “I got everything you could grow.”
Mary said just about everything her mother grew in the garden got preserved. A lot of the produce was also given away, Mike added.
Hackman and her husband stayed on their homestead until 1974, when they moved into Westlock. Mike took over the farm in his parents’ absence.
After 49 years of marriage, Dmetro died in 1983. In 2002, at the age of 88, Hackman moved into the Pembina Lodge.
According to Mary, the secret to her mother’s long life was her near-perfect health, which was a source of some good-natured ribbing over the years. It wasn’t until Hackman was in her 90s when she experienced her first major visit to the hospital.
Throughout her life, Mary said her mother was known for her cooking, especially her cabbage rolls.
Mike recounted a story about people having trouble with making small cabbage rolls, and his mother’s novel idea.
“Start with a smaller leaf,” was her suggestion, he said, cracking up.
