‘Hello, Alice’: A 105th birthday celebration

Mount Carmel Home in St. Catharines hosts birthday tea party for resident Alice Adams

It was a very pink birthday, in a very pink room — as it should be when celebrating any birthday. But 105 years old? That counts for something a little extra pink, and a little extra special.

Surrounded by family and friends, caregivers and neighbours, Alice Adams welcomed in a new birthday, singing songs, listening to jokes and drinking tea.

“I’m good,” said Adams, smiling, as she looked around the room. “Everything is fine.”

Switching up the words to the title song of the Broadway musical “Hello Dolly,” the group sang to Adams, accompanied by a pianist: “You lookin’ swell, Alice. I can tell, Alice. You still glowin’, you still crowin’, you’re still goin’ strong.”

And strong she is, said Diane Cossette, a personal support worker at Mount Carmel Home in St. Catharines, where Adams has been a resident for seven years.

“Honest to goodness, Alice gives us a run for our money — at 105, she’s pretty spicy,” said Cossette. “She’s a good old Brit woman — that’s why she says she lasted this long because she’s got ‘good English blood in her.’ And that she’s pickled — that’s from her. She likes her wine, she likes her beer, she likes her rye.”

What does she like in her rye, exactly? “Coke. Ginger Ale. Anything,” quipped Cossette.

Adams was born in London, England, moving with her family to Canada as a teenager.

She married her husband, George, in 1942, and raised three daughters on Beach Boulevard in Hamilton. For most of her life, Adams was a stay-at-home mom, but worked part time, including at the Hamilton Spectator, sorting newspapers and flyers.

George died when he was 61, leaving Adams on her own. Lorraine Kreuger, Adams’ middle daughter, said her mom lived on her own, in her own Hamilton home, until she was 86, before moving in with Kreuger.

Her mom has a “wicked sense of humour and is a real card player,” said Kreuger. Or at least, she used to be, she said, adding Adams can’t see the cards anymore, “but she won’t admit she needs glasses.”

While living in Burlington with her daughter, Adams would play cards every afternoon — and if nobody was available to drive her to the game, she just “hopped on the bus.” But a fall would eventually require Adams to need additional assistance, so she moved into the St. Catharines retirement home.

During the pandemic, Kreuger said, it was hard not being able to visit her mom or talk on the phone (made much more difficult due to Adams’ hearing loss).

“I think the isolation was hard on everybody,” said Kreuger. “Mom hung in there and that’s what she said. You asked her how she is, she says, ‘I’m still hanging in here.’ ”

Adams may be 105, but she’s maintained her feistiness, and with that her stubbornness. She watches hockey — which Adams claims she does not like, said Cossette — dances with her walker and serenades people with songs.

“She’s special. She really is,” said Cossette. “Getting ready for bed last night, I told her, ‘There’s this old wives’ tale that says only the good die young.’ That’s when she told me she must have been really bad.”

But most of all, she loves to pray, said Sister Irene, one of Adams’ prime caregivers.

“She’s there for mass. She knows all the prayers that the priest says. It’s amazing. Some days she sleeps a lot, other days she’s right with activities downstairs.

“She might not do much, but she’s down there with the people,” said Sister Irene, adding if Adams doesn’t know a person’s name she calls them Fred.

“She’s a very, very happy person. She has great joy … She’s enjoying very minute of it.”