Bea (Hendrie) Dezell, mother of Prince George longtime residents Cliff (Sharron Haynes) Dezell and Noreen (Jim) Rustad was born on July 7th, in the year of 1908 in North Vancouver, the same year that the Ford Model T (also known as the Tin Lizzie) was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company. The Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage and Bea can still remember the first car she saw. Well, that was a popular event all right but not near as popular as Bea Dezell is today to her family and to her many friends here in Prince George.
I spoke to Cliff Dezell the other day and he said, "Our Mom was 105 on July 7th so we had a family garden party lunch at her home on the 6th of July with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as a few friends. In particular, one of her oldest friends Elizabeth Sinclair (95 years old) visited for a short time. There were about 25 of us celebrating. The grandchildren led the group in singing a special song in her honour which was composed by one of them, Tami Dos Santos. In keeping with the theme the male grandchildren and great grandchildren wore bowler and other fancy hats and ties and the girls had fancy floral dresses and hats!! It was very festive and fun. The sun shone and we had small tables outside for the lunch in the spirit of the English Garden party theme.
Instead of a traditional birthday cake the family made cupcakes and decorated them with candy bees made by the great grandchildren. There were tea and rolled sandwiches and other tea goodies. A toast was given by the oldest and two youngest family members.
It was another day to celebrate the life of a great lady."
Bea Dezell survived the Great Depression, WWI and WW2 but those are stories for another day.
Cliff reflects back and says, "Our mom was one of the pillars of the family business as it went from J.N. Dezell and Son Ltd, to Dezell Construction. The company built many buildings, schools and houses along the way from Lac La Hache, Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Wells to name a few and then they settled here in Prince George in 1946. Dad was quite involved in local politics so Mom ran the show behind the scenes. He was the Mayor of Prince George from 1950 to 1953 and again from 1960 to 1969. They were a great team."
In 1999 Bea was chosen Grandmother of the year. This is no surprise as her grandchildren all claim that she is the greatest grandmother in the world. They all spent many summers at Six Mile Lake with "Granny Gadget" (a loving nickname for their grandmother who is still using her computer to email and loves telling her family "just Google it" for any question that comes up). At the tender ages of 12 and 13 Granny Gadget was busy teaching them all how to drive a car out at the lake; 20 years later the parents were just finding out about a lot of these Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer shenanigans that took place out there - all harmless of course. Times that these now no longer young adults will never forget: Times when they learned how to connect with their grandmother, and to nature.
Bea is a member of Knox United Church and belongs to the Royal Purple and the Good Cheer Club, which is one of the oldest clubs in town. She is a member of the White Cane, C.N.I.B. and the Prince George and District Senior Centre and the Elder Citizens Recreation Centre. She remains active and is able to get out into the community due in large part to the loving help of Vicky Watt.
Bea is in good health and is a very cheerful, fun loving and happy person who often mentions that people made their own fun and had many enjoyable times even in the Depression. Life was simpler, perhaps better then. Thanks for the memories Bea.
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