Florence Himes may be 108 but she has yet to slow down. She is
so fast on her walker she is almost a blur as she negotiates the
halls of New Horizons Tower, the not-for-profit Toronto seniors
residence she has called home for 20 years. She lives in the assisted-living
area on the second floor, but is up and down the elevator several
times daily. Who better, then, to take on a bunch of young whipper-snappers
in the residence's 200-storey stair challenge in June 2003
to raise money for low-income seniors who want to live at New Horizons.
"I told them I thought I would win," she confides. "I
wanted to win. (The retirement home's administrator) Mr. (Ian) Logan was
counting on me for the money."
As six runners ran a route up and down the buildings stairs, Himes
rode the elevator on a gold brocade chair. At every other floor,
she was up, on her walker, out in the hallway and back inside the
elevator again.
"I kept asking her if she wanted to stop. I'd say 'Had
enough, Nanny?' and she would say no," says Cliff Himes,
her 74-year-old stepson who rode along with her. "She never
gives up."
An active lifestyle is not new to Himes. She's participated
in a fundraising walk within the residence - and walked the
farthest and raised the most money. For years she has made doilies
to sell at the Christmas sale. At 105, she was off to see Niagara
Falls, and she's never missed the residence's annual outing
to see the fall colours.
"If there's something going on, she wants to be a part
of it, she's always been like that," her stepson says.
Widowed three times, she's lived throughout Southern Ontario,
in Montreal and in Manitoba, where her family emigrated from England
when she was 14. She's worked on a farm, as a dressmaker and
in a munitions factory during the Second World War. She also used
to mix cement, hang wallpaper, lay tiles and do her own wiring around
the house. Her son Ross, a doctor, died three years ago.
Only her hearing aids indicate she has lived in three centuries.
How has she managed to live so long? "I don't worry,"
she says with a wide grin. "I do what I can about things and
let the rest take care of itself."
And the stair challenge? She won. The fastest runner - a 40-year-old
pilot and jogger - ran past Himes seconds after she had completed
her 200 flights. The event raised more than $9,000, much of it from
people who had put their money on Himes to win.
"She moves like lightning," says Ian Logan, the administrator.
"She's so fast she scares you."
At comfortlife.ca you can learn about a wide variety of Toronto retirement homes.
Featured Articles
