Staying healthy until you’re 100: an active, independent life
« In the médias » By Hugo Duchaine – January 4, 2025 – Journal de Montréal.
The Savoie Family is proud to share with you this lovely article that recently appeared in the Journal de Montréal, in which one of our residents – at the dawn of her 102nd birthday – shares the secrets of her longevity. Among them: staying busy, all the time!
Mme Lorrain, qui aura bientôt 102 ans, sort des muffins du four de son appartement aux Résidences Soleil, à Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
PHOTO AGENCE QMI, JOËL LEMAY
A South Shore senior who turns 102 in a few days still cooks her own three meals a day and makes jars of spaghetti sauce for her loved ones.
“Being busy all the time,” Fernande Lorrain reveals about her secret to living so long, while maintaining good health. “I’m happy, life is good and I don’t look forward to dying as long as I’m independent,” she continues.
At the dawn of her 102nd birthday, the resident of Manoir Mont St-Hilaire never sees her days go by. And, best of all, she can boast that she cooks all her meals. “I make beef Stroganoff, dumpling stew, shepherd’s pie, spaghetti sauce,” she lists. “And lots of desserts,” adds her daughter-in-law, Sylvie Simoneau.
Fernande Lorrain with her daughter-in-law, Sylvie Simoneau. Photo Agence QMI, JOËL LEMAY
She still treasures “her cookbook”, a precious Graal that holds yellowed sheets with faded writing and is held together by several rubber bands. Fridays and Saturdays are the two days she always devotes to cooking. Now a widow, she had even taught her husband to cook, certain that she would leave before he did.
A dedicated teacher
If life is smiling on her today, Mrs. Lorrain reveals that her childhood in Montreal’s Saint-Henri district was more difficult. She was only three years old when her father died, forcing her mother to work and leave her children in the care of a hospice. Resilient, Ms. Lorrain believes that having suffered loneliness when she was younger, it affects her less today.
But her eyes sparkle when she talks about her 30-plus-year career as a teacher and principal in Montreal.
“I never missed a day of school,” she says, adding that she even received a full year’s salary as compensation for the countless sick days she didn’t take.
Florida and volunteering
When she retired, she plunged into volunteer work. “She always gave of herself,” explains her daughter-in-law.
In particular, she looked after new immigrants, many of them from Vietnam. She was in charge of sponsoring them with Quebec families to help them navigate into their new lives.
Mrs. Lorrain enjoyed the Florida sun for 20 years as a snowbird, and survived colon cancer, she recounts.
Reading and Scrabble
Having always loved reading, she still devours at least three books a month.
I’ve always read,” says the centenarian. I remember when I was a teenager, my sister and I used to put a blanket over our heads and read in bed with a lamp, so that my mother wouldn’t notice.
At almost 102, Fernande Lorrain is still an avid reader and Scrabble player. Photo Agence QMI, JOËL LEMAY
She is particularly fond of novels by Danielle Steel or Louise Tremblay-D’Essiambre, which she now reads with a magnifying glass rather than a lamp.
She also plays Scrabble virtually, on her tablet, with around fifteen other people, including her daughter-in-law, who struggles to keep up.
“She’s all there and well anchored in 2024,” impresses Ms. Simoneau. “I’m well looked after and pampered,” adds her mother-in-law.