Recently I had the rare opportunity to get to know four spry and intelligent ladies. One of the many things that these four ladies have in common is a great sense of humour and the fact that they are all 91 years old! I have interviewed many people in this past year for this column, but the interview with Caroline Burkhardt, Millie Christiansen, Anne Sharp and Rose Gaal tops them all. We all had fun and lots of laughter.
This week I will introduce the four ladies to you and tell you a bit about their families. Over the next two weeks I will talk about their careers and the work they did all their lives, and finally I will share with you their feelings about a few subjects that are so important to each of them.
Caroline (Schneider) Burkhardt was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta in 1922 and came to Prince George in 1956 from Vancouver. She is the middle child of seven children.
Her husband Edward Burkhardt worked as a roofer for Prince Sheet Metal and Heating for 20 years until he was killed in an airplane accident in 1977 while traveling to a job site.
Caroline said, "We had three children, two have passed away and my daughter Sharon Stene lives here in Prince George. I have six grand children, ten great grandchildren and two great- great grand children.
When my husband died I moved to Vancouver and I met Harold Allshire. We moved back to Prince George and moved into Asher Place in 2005. Harold passed away when he was 85 and I stayed at Asher Place. I love it here. It is a fantastic place and I have a lot of friends here that care about me."
Rose (Domonkus) Gaal was born in 1921 of Hungarian decent. Her father came to Canada in 1926 and settled in Houston. He worked for the railroad and saved enough money to bring the rest of his family to Canada. In 1930 they all moved to the Willow River area where they lived, worked, grew up and took their schooling and moved into Prince George in 1959. Rose is the eldest of six children.
Rose married Andy Gaal in 1937 and they raised four children: Louis, Andy, Michael and daughter Rosanne Wlasitz who passed away at the age of 45. Rose says, "My husband passed away at age 85. If he was still alive we would be celebrating 76 year of marriage. I now have six grandchildren, ten great grand children and one great-great grand daughter. I sent two sons to Calgary and they came back by the dozens! All my children turned out good. We never had any visits by the RCMP when they were growing up. Now, the police visit me all the time. My oldest son Louis and my youngest son Michael are career policemen for the City of Calgary and Andy, a retired electrician, lives here in Prince George.
Now, I am here at Asher Place and I love it. Here we have great people with about 70 of us that are like one big family. We all enjoy close friendships. In fact Evelyn Rebman and I have been friends since our childhood. We grew up together and now we are growing old and wiser together. You don't find that to often these days."
Millie (Hathaway) Christiansen was born in 1922 and is the second youngest of nine children. She grew up in Alberta, moved to Willow River in 1951 and then moved into Prince George in 1954. She raised five children; June Berry of Prince George, Lois Ellis of Langley, Carol Saunders of Kelowna, Michael Bell from the Okanagan and Rodney Bell who is now deceased
Millie was the quiet and reserved one at the table. She is relaxed and easy going. Her friends all agreed that they were happy when Millie moved in at Asher Place.
Anne (Grant) Sharp also born in 1921 came from Pipestone, Manitoba and arrived in Prince George in 1966. She is the third eldest of ten children. She married Peter Sharp and celebrated 31 years of marriage before he passed away in 1999. Ann reflected back and with a sprinkle of humour said, "Peter was working as a carpenter for the City of Prince George when I met him. He invited me for coffee one day. He seemed like such a nice down to earth kind of guy so I accepted and the rest is history. I have four children and 13 grand children, nine great grand children and two great-great grand children.
I was one of the first people to move into Asher Place when it opened. It is my home and I can't say enough good things about Kathy and Ralph Balcom. They are so considerate and thoughtful about everyone and they really look out for all of us."
This concludes my introductions. Meet me again next week in this column to hear some finer details about these amazing women. To be continued.
