Margaret Cousins, 110, still enjoys a brandy before bed. She is with her daughter Gerry Mellis. Courtesy: Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles,
The North Bay Nugget.
"I'm pretty good," Cousins said in a clear voice before extending an invitation to attend her bash. One special guest will be Cousins' daughter, Geraldine, who is 84.
"I wish you could come," she said.
"Not too many people can still talk on the phone at that age," nephew Arnold Besley said after hanging up the phone from his home near Tincap.
"She's in her third century. I like to say that," Besley says of his aunt. He and his wife Diane talk to Cousins a few times a month but cannot attend the party due to Arnold's health.
"I have been hesitant to tell people how I have an aunt so old because people just think you're stretching it," he said. According to Cousins, the secret to her longevity is vitamins and brandy.
"She's always taken vitamins and she still takes vitamins. And she always has a nip of brandy every night," Besley said.
"She's very broad-minded. Whatever is going on in the world, she takes an interest," adds Diane Besley.
"She's just very attuned and very clear minded. She lived in her own home until she was 100."
Hesitant to boast out loud is one thing, but Besley is proud to be the keeper of his aunt's many letters and photographs, many depicting her childhood growing up in Athens.
Cousins was the oldest of Jane and John Besley's five children. She had three sisters and one brother, Arnold Besley's father Alexander, a lifelong resident of Athens who died in 1971.
Cousins has also outlived her sisters Marion, who died at age 97, Bertha who passed away at age 85, and Cora, who lived to be 93.
"When we lived on the farm at Elbe (1905-06), it was always a treat to go to grandma's house on Hard Island," Cousins says in some of her accounts of the area recorded by her nephew.
"Dad used to take the milk to the cheese factory, as did all the farmers. The one at Elbe was located just west of the house beside Glen Elbe school on the same side of the road."
Often her father would give her a ride to school while delivering cheese.
"One day when I wasn't with him he met one of the first automobiles to appear in the area. It (the car) spooked the horse and dad was thrown from the wagon while the horse ran away and the milk cans rolled into the field," Cousins recounted to her nephew.
The family lived together in the Athens area until the death of their mother, a devout Quaker, in 1912. After their mother's tragic passing, Cousins, who was 12, and her siblings were split up and sent to the homes of relatives in both Canada and the U.S. Cousins went to stay with an uncle and his family in Hammond, N.Y., where she graduated from high school.
Cousins moved back to Canada to begin her first job and resided in Hamilton before meeting her husband, Hubert Cousins, a decorated First World War veteran.
The couple married on March 25, 1924 and moved to Fort Erie. After her husband's death, Cousins continued to reside there until she was 100, at which point she took the first plane trip of her life - she flew to North Bay to be close to her daughter.
The Besleys say their aunt now has vision problems and cannot watch television. Her hearing is going, too, but she still tries to listen to CBC radio. What she can still do quite handily, though, is pick up a phone and welcome one and all to her party.
© 2009 Sun Media
February 28, 2009
CANADA: Vitamins, nip of brandy cited as key to longevity of Athens native, 110
.
BROCKVILLE, Ontario / The Recorder and Times / February 28, 2009
By Deanna Clark, Staff Writer
Athens-area native Margaret Cousins is joining an elite group today - she's turning 110.
Though no longer living in this area, Cousins (nee Besley) is still going strong and has her nephew Arnold Besley, of Tincap, keeping track of all her letters and photographs dating back to her birth in Glen Elbe on February 27, 1899.
"I had my hair done," an able sounding Cousins said in a telephone interview with The Recorder and Times earlier this week while preparing for her milestone birthday.
Family and staff at the Nipissing Manor Nursing Home Centre where Cousins now lives arranged a birthday party with a cake big enough to feed every resident and guests this afternoon.
Margaret Cousins, 110, still enjoys a brandy before bed. She is with her daughter Gerry Mellis. Courtesy: Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles,
The North Bay Nugget.
"I'm pretty good," Cousins said in a clear voice before extending an invitation to attend her bash. One special guest will be Cousins' daughter, Geraldine, who is 84.
"I wish you could come," she said.
"Not too many people can still talk on the phone at that age," nephew Arnold Besley said after hanging up the phone from his home near Tincap.
"She's in her third century. I like to say that," Besley says of his aunt. He and his wife Diane talk to Cousins a few times a month but cannot attend the party due to Arnold's health.
"I have been hesitant to tell people how I have an aunt so old because people just think you're stretching it," he said. According to Cousins, the secret to her longevity is vitamins and brandy.
"She's always taken vitamins and she still takes vitamins. And she always has a nip of brandy every night," Besley said.
"She's very broad-minded. Whatever is going on in the world, she takes an interest," adds Diane Besley.
"She's just very attuned and very clear minded. She lived in her own home until she was 100."
Hesitant to boast out loud is one thing, but Besley is proud to be the keeper of his aunt's many letters and photographs, many depicting her childhood growing up in Athens.
Cousins was the oldest of Jane and John Besley's five children. She had three sisters and one brother, Arnold Besley's father Alexander, a lifelong resident of Athens who died in 1971.
Cousins has also outlived her sisters Marion, who died at age 97, Bertha who passed away at age 85, and Cora, who lived to be 93.
"When we lived on the farm at Elbe (1905-06), it was always a treat to go to grandma's house on Hard Island," Cousins says in some of her accounts of the area recorded by her nephew.
"Dad used to take the milk to the cheese factory, as did all the farmers. The one at Elbe was located just west of the house beside Glen Elbe school on the same side of the road."
Often her father would give her a ride to school while delivering cheese.
"One day when I wasn't with him he met one of the first automobiles to appear in the area. It (the car) spooked the horse and dad was thrown from the wagon while the horse ran away and the milk cans rolled into the field," Cousins recounted to her nephew.
The family lived together in the Athens area until the death of their mother, a devout Quaker, in 1912. After their mother's tragic passing, Cousins, who was 12, and her siblings were split up and sent to the homes of relatives in both Canada and the U.S. Cousins went to stay with an uncle and his family in Hammond, N.Y., where she graduated from high school.
Cousins moved back to Canada to begin her first job and resided in Hamilton before meeting her husband, Hubert Cousins, a decorated First World War veteran.
The couple married on March 25, 1924 and moved to Fort Erie. After her husband's death, Cousins continued to reside there until she was 100, at which point she took the first plane trip of her life - she flew to North Bay to be close to her daughter.
The Besleys say their aunt now has vision problems and cannot watch television. Her hearing is going, too, but she still tries to listen to CBC radio. What she can still do quite handily, though, is pick up a phone and welcome one and all to her party.
© 2009 Sun Media
Margaret Cousins, 110, still enjoys a brandy before bed. She is with her daughter Gerry Mellis. Courtesy: Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles,
The North Bay Nugget.
"I'm pretty good," Cousins said in a clear voice before extending an invitation to attend her bash. One special guest will be Cousins' daughter, Geraldine, who is 84.
"I wish you could come," she said.
"Not too many people can still talk on the phone at that age," nephew Arnold Besley said after hanging up the phone from his home near Tincap.
"She's in her third century. I like to say that," Besley says of his aunt. He and his wife Diane talk to Cousins a few times a month but cannot attend the party due to Arnold's health.
"I have been hesitant to tell people how I have an aunt so old because people just think you're stretching it," he said. According to Cousins, the secret to her longevity is vitamins and brandy.
"She's always taken vitamins and she still takes vitamins. And she always has a nip of brandy every night," Besley said.
"She's very broad-minded. Whatever is going on in the world, she takes an interest," adds Diane Besley.
"She's just very attuned and very clear minded. She lived in her own home until she was 100."
Hesitant to boast out loud is one thing, but Besley is proud to be the keeper of his aunt's many letters and photographs, many depicting her childhood growing up in Athens.
Cousins was the oldest of Jane and John Besley's five children. She had three sisters and one brother, Arnold Besley's father Alexander, a lifelong resident of Athens who died in 1971.
Cousins has also outlived her sisters Marion, who died at age 97, Bertha who passed away at age 85, and Cora, who lived to be 93.
"When we lived on the farm at Elbe (1905-06), it was always a treat to go to grandma's house on Hard Island," Cousins says in some of her accounts of the area recorded by her nephew.
"Dad used to take the milk to the cheese factory, as did all the farmers. The one at Elbe was located just west of the house beside Glen Elbe school on the same side of the road."
Often her father would give her a ride to school while delivering cheese.
"One day when I wasn't with him he met one of the first automobiles to appear in the area. It (the car) spooked the horse and dad was thrown from the wagon while the horse ran away and the milk cans rolled into the field," Cousins recounted to her nephew.
The family lived together in the Athens area until the death of their mother, a devout Quaker, in 1912. After their mother's tragic passing, Cousins, who was 12, and her siblings were split up and sent to the homes of relatives in both Canada and the U.S. Cousins went to stay with an uncle and his family in Hammond, N.Y., where she graduated from high school.
Cousins moved back to Canada to begin her first job and resided in Hamilton before meeting her husband, Hubert Cousins, a decorated First World War veteran.
The couple married on March 25, 1924 and moved to Fort Erie. After her husband's death, Cousins continued to reside there until she was 100, at which point she took the first plane trip of her life - she flew to North Bay to be close to her daughter.
The Besleys say their aunt now has vision problems and cannot watch television. Her hearing is going, too, but she still tries to listen to CBC radio. What she can still do quite handily, though, is pick up a phone and welcome one and all to her party.
© 2009 Sun Media
