Spry Riverview resident turns 107
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 -- Natalie Miller
At 107 years old, Margaret Fitzpatrick teaches painting, reads Dick Francis novels and is a force to be reckoned with when she’s using her walker.

What’s her secret to longevity?

“She’ll tell you it’s because she never married and never had kids,” says her niece, Linda McMullen.

Linda helped Margaret, a Riverview Manor resident, celebrate her 107th birthday Oct. 20

Margaret Fitzpatrick celebrates her 107th birthday.

with family, friends and staff at the Peterborough long-term care home.

“She’s living right in the moment,” says Linda.

“She’s a very spirited person. She has a great sense of humour.”

Her aunt has lived at the nursing home for two years and while she’s deaf, she is cognitively well. She teaches her co-residents how to paint abstracts, enjoys reading, and critiquing photographs, as photography was once a passion of hers.

Margaret is from Toronto, having worked through The Depression as a bookkeeper. “She tells me she was never a day out of work.” Margaret made some wise investments and was able to retire before there was such a thing as a national pension plan. From Toronto, Margaret moved to Orillia to be near her cottage “her great love,” says Linda.

The senior moved to a three-phase retirement village in Cobourg where she spent the last 15 years before her move to Riverview. Margaret drove until she was 94. On one of her last driving tests, the instructor told Linda Margaret drove well but a little too fast.

She continues to be on the move at Riverview. “You have to run to keep up with her,” says Linda about her aunt using a walker.

Margaret hails from a family of nine children and she’s the only one still living. Linda says she has always been close to her aunt. “I’m her advocate,” she says.

“I feel quite honoured to have known her.”