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Eganville – At 105, Grace Merchand still has the beautiful, almost impish, smile and twinkle in her eye which has carried her through for over a century as the daughter of Scottish immigrants who was orphaned at a young age and went on to have a full life in the Ottawa Valley, teaching, hosting dances, enjoying the outdoors and sharing her infectious love of life.

“You have to have a sense of humour,” she noted. “It’s much nicer to have a smile.”

Living at Bonnechere Manor, where she enjoys the company of others and still has a good pace to her step as she walked to the dining hall, she was treated and feted with a birthday party joined by family and friends for the big day last Thursday when she turned 105. She especially enjoyed the piper and was tapping her toes to the music, a fallback to her Scottish heritage.

“The young people I know put on a party for me,” she said. “It was very nice and I have all these flowers.”

For most people are “young people” when compared to Grace. She was born when WWI was still in full swing and the Spanish Influenza was gripping the world. In her lifetime, she tragically saw another World War and another pandemic which swept the globe. In her personal life she experienced the early loss of both parents and was widowed right when she was looking forward to enjoying her retirement with her husband. Those are blows which might have been cause to make some people bitter, but not Grace. She looks back on her life full of love and gratitude. She has kept a joy for life and enjoyed good health, living on her own well past 100 until more recently when she moved first to a retirement home and then to the Manor.

 Born on March 2, 1918, in Toronto as Grace Weissman to a young Scottish couple – her father was from the Highlands and her mother from Glasgow — she recalled her parents came to Canada in search of  opportunity and were encouraged to find work in the Toronto area.

“As it happened a doctor was asked to start a home in Whitby for people with mental health issues and they worked there, so I spent my young life in Whitby,” she recalled.

Her father died when he was 27 of cancer, so she doesn’t remember him. She was only five months old.

“My mother remarried to a single man, a very nice person,” she said.

They moved to a horseracing farm and Grace joked she began to love reading when she would read the horse racing accounts in the newspaper. 

“I was going to a rural school and it was about a mile and half walk on the highway, so you had to be careful,” she said.

Tragically, her mother died when she was still young and her stepfather’s sister stepped in to help out and take care of Grace. She has fond memories of her time with her stepfather and his sister who provided for her and is thankful to them.  

“They were lovely people,” she recalled.

As a teenager, Grace decided to be a teacher and enrolled in Toronto Normal School for her teaching qualifications. Her first job was in Prospect, which is near Brooklyn, Ontario, just north of Oshawa. It was in the 1930s and she was not much older than her pupils.

“It wasn’t easy to find a job then when you were young and inexperienced,” she recalled. “I applied for another job and ended up in Denbigh.”

The school in Denbigh in 1946.

 From then on, the Ottawa Valley was home. She would teach in Denbigh and Petawawa and still enjoys visits from former students and reconnecting.

“They are all grown up now for sure but sometimes they come to the door once in a while to let me know they think of me,” she said.

Grace also developed a life-long friendship with the late Len Hopkins, the former MP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, and his family. They were teachers together in the rural schoolhouse and the friendship was solidified during her years in Petawawa as well.

She loved being a teacher and working with the students. You might even say Grace was a pioneer before her time in education. Long before the idea of outdoor classrooms, she worked to bring the classroom outdoors and work with the natural interests of the children. She retained her love of the outdoors throughout her life.

“We live in a beautiful area, especially in the fall,” she said.

As a young teacher she fell in love with L.T. Merchand who was as tall as she was small and they married in 1947. A picture of them as a couple standing on the back porch of their home is still prominent in Grace’s room and she smiles when she talks about their life together.

“We had a nice life. We enjoyed one another and being together,” she said. “He was a good person for me to marry.”

Grace and L.T. on their wedding day.

He was from the Griffith area originally and they soon built their home outside Eganville where they bought a few acres. They had a bush lot near his family homestead and on the highway outside Eganville they ran a popular dance hall called the Royal Pines Pavilion. Many recall it as the best dance hall in the Valley and the couple also had an overnight cabin to keep tourists and a small store. Dances were held on Friday nights and it was all lots of fun, she recalled.

“When we bought the property we decided there was no place nearby for entertainment, so my husband and another man built the dance hall,” she said. “We met a lot of nice people there through the years.”

The dance hall was a large building, 40 by 80 feet, and was also used for wedding receptions. Bands came from all over to the dance hall, which would be crowded with dancers. The couple thrived with the fun and activity. Her husband was ideally suited to running the dance hall, she said. He had a presence about him and people responded well to him, she recalled.

“He did things in a quiet way,” she said. “He was a good person to manage people.”

Grace and L.T. outside their home.

Memories of the dance hall live on for those who drive by the home which L.T. and Grace built at the top of the hill overlooking Wilber Lake and where the dance hall is still visible. The road across from the property is still called Royal Pines after the dance hall.

All the while, she continued teaching and by the 1950s she was in Petawawa, where she would stay most of the week, returning back on weekends. During the dance season she would make sure to come home on Wednesday nights to help.

Tragically, her husband died shortly after she retired from teaching in the 1970s. Grace stayed in the home and enjoyed her retirement. Active in the Association of Retired Teachers, she also spent time travelling, reconnecting with family in Scotland and New Zealand and always had a keen interest in people around her.

While she uses a walker and her hearing is not as good as it used to be, Grace still enjoys reading and her memory is particularly strong about her early years and fond memories of her childhood and early married life.

For those who might be looking for a secret to making it to 105, she joked she washed her face with cold water. She added she never expected to live so long since both her parents died young from cancer.

“I must have gotten a gene from some old grandaddy,” she said.

Having a good outlook on life is very important, she believes.

“My mother was an unusually knowing and fine person,” she said. “I learned from her how she dealt with anything upsetting. She had a good sense of humour.”

Grace at 105. Still smiling.

There is also something very special about Grace in her interest in others. At her birthday party held last week at the Manor, she took the opportunity to thank those present and the organizers and noted she wanted to get to know the people better who were there. While at the Leader, I have had the pleasure of interviewing Grace on several occasions and each time she always asked about me and was curious about my life as well. So perhaps a secret to longevity is also having a keen interest in the world around you and caring about other people.

As Grace walked me to the door, she invited me to come back.

“If I can do something for you, let me know,” she said.

Thank you, Grace. You have already done more than you know. Your smile has brightened my day and your example of living life with a smile, a laugh and, dare I say, grace, despite adversity and challenges is a wonderful gift.

Happy Birthday Grace! God Bless You.