Alberta has changed a lot in the last century, and one Pembina Lodge resident has been there for all of it.
Rosey Van Hove was born in Rivičre Qui Barre on May 15, 1911, and celebrated her 100th birthday May 15, 2011 at the Westlock Legion surrounded by scores of family.
“I’m just lucky,” she said when asked what it was like to have lived to be 100. “I still feel like I used to.”
Growing up, Van Hove lived through both World Wars, the Great Depression, the birth of television and several other major world events that many people today have only read about in books.
Yet for her family, it’s more about Van Hove than it is about the changes the world has seen in her lifetime.
“I figure she was an amazing person,” said Ida Vezina, Van Hove’s eldest daughter.
Vezina said her mother was a talented and crafty woman, one who would work hard in the fields on the family farm, yet still found the time to sew most of her five children’s clothes and bake for the family.
“We had lots of chocolate cake and lemon pie,” she said.
In fact, Van Hove herself credits her work ethic with helping her keep active well past retirement.
“You do housework and you do learning,” she said. “You don’t think about anything else when you’re busy.”
Van Hove married twice, Vezina said. With her first husband, Charles Van Hove, she moved to the Alcomdale area to set up the family farm and raise their family.
It was on that farm in the 1930s where they grew most of the food they ate, while using ration tickets for items like tea, coffee, flour and sugar, Vezina said.
After Charles died at the age of 67, Van Hove would wait close to seven years before remarrying.
Her second husband was Oswald Chevalier, with whom she moved to Morinville and Merritt, B.C.
Chevalier died a short seven years later while the couple was in Merritt, Vezina said, shortly after which Van Hove moved to Westlock.
“She never did get used to B.C. because of all the mountains, so she came back to Westlock and settled there,” she said.
Van Hove spent two years in an apartment before moving into a house on her own. She would live in that house until she was 98, and continued to take care of her lawn and shovel snow. Her most recent move saw her take up residence at the Pembina Lodge.
For Vezina, there is no question what she thinks of her mother.
“As far as I’m concerned, she was a hard worker and a good mother,” she said.
That good mother helped to raise five children, and is also a grandmother of 10, a great-grandmother of another 10, and the great-great-grandmother of two.
“They’re nice to have,” Van Hove said of her two great-great-grandsons. “They’re nice to see and to talk to. And they like to see you. They’re excited to see you.”
Having reached 100, she said she wants to keep living only as long as she’s enjoying herself. And while she’s still alive, Vezina said Van Hove will continue to give her family her advice.
“As far as life, we ask her, ‘How do you live so long? Or what kept you going?’” Vezina said. “She said, ‘Make sure you eat to keep your strength up, and continue to work. Never stop doing what you can do.’”
