Mother, great-grandmother, wife, centenarian. Born April 19, 1916 in Lachute, Que.; died July 26, 2016 in Owen Sound, Ont., of old age at 100.
Born in Lachute, Que., Marjorie was the middle child in a family of seven children. When Marjorie was 2, her father decided to "go West" to find better opportunities for his family. Her mother packed up the kids and followed a year later, taking the train from Montreal to Carlyle, Sask. On the week-long train ride, a suitcase full of sandwiches fed the family until Winnipeg; when the train stopped, Marjorie's mother would ask fellow passengers to watch the children while she ran into town for milk.
Marjorie was 15 when – in the depths of the Depression – her father's cartage business in Saskatchewan experienced a devastating fire. What was left was sold in a yard sale and the family returned to Quebec in 1931. Marjorie talked about packing the family's Durant motorcar with their remaining possessions as they got ready to return to Montreal. They drove from Saskatchewan to Montreal via Minneapolis with her mother in tears the entire way as she didn't want to leave. Marjorie would recount in later years the horrors of that trip.
Back in Quebec, money was very scarce. The Durant was sold to buy food for the family and Marjorie took a job at the Belding-Corticelli silkthread company. She worked as a clerk and had the opportunity to model fabrics at marketing shows. As a model, she was sent for hairdos and manicures – a novelty for a young woman of her means!
One evening while attending a dance, Marjorie met Sid Mason. Sid worked for Canadian Pacific Railway and they were married on Aug. 14, 1937. They honeymooned at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and settled in Verdun, in the south end of Montreal. The couple welcomed a daughter, Heather, in 1938, and a son, Burke, in 1942.
All of Marjorie's siblings and parents lived close by, and they were a close family. Marjorie worked as kindergarten assistant, and then as a teacher at the MacKay Centre for Deaf and Crippled Children. In 1951, Sid and Marjorie moved to the suburbs, like many Canadians, where they remained for almost 30 years. After Sid retired from CP, the couple moved to Owen Sound, Ont., in 1980 to be near their grandchildren. They loved their life in Owen Sound and became actively involved at their church, volunteering in the community, and played a lot of bridge and lawn bowling.
When Sid died, Marjorie moved to a senior's residence where she had a fulfilling life. By the age of 95, she began to lose her memory but regained a lot of her humour and greatly amused her eight grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren who knew her lovingly as Nanny. Marjorie died peacefully with her children by her side, just three months after celebrating her 100th birthday.
Heather Gates is Marjorie's daughter.