Friends and family of Grace Heagy gathered in Rockglen for a special 100th聽birthday parade on August 15, beginning after 11 a.m. after the participants were marshalled in line.
The parade began south of Centre Street, turned onto Railway Avenue and headed north through town. Emergency vehicles, horse riders, motorcyclists, marchers waving placards and cars decorated with balloons and streamers drove along the parade route in commemoration of Heagy鈥檚 birthday. 聽聽聽
Grace had a special sitting area near the park on Main Street鈥檚 west end, where she viewed the parade and waved to well-wishers under the shade of a tent.
The fifth of 10 children born to Norman Levi Kirby and Grace Barbara (Johnson) in the village of Hart, Grace was born August 11, 1920 on the family homestead.
The Kirbys moved to Scout Lake when Grace was nine.
Her father was a farmer and cattle rancher. Their mother died July 1946. Norman Kirby remarried Gladys Roberts in February 1947.
Grace took on (housekeeping duties for Earl Heagy after his first wife died. She married Heagy on March 21, 1947, raising three children: Earl Jr., Ralph and Edith, plus five children of their own: Marvin, Garry, Steve, Shirley and Peggy.
Earl and Grace retired from the farm and moved to Rockglen, where she worked various jobs, including a part time role as a cook at the hospital.聽
Earl Heagy died in December 1989.
Family was of utmost importance for Grace all her life, especially her father, who had encouraging words and followed an easygoing philosophy.
鈥淥ur dad would tell us that there will be good times and there will be bad. It鈥檚 easy to enjoy the good times, but during the bad, don鈥檛 let it get you down, it鈥檒l pass.鈥澛�
Longevity is a feature of the Kirby family, with siblings Myrtle (Burnaby, BC), Ralph (Assiniboia) and Violet (Moose Jaw) all alive and in their 90s.
Grace has 29 grandchildren, 62 great grandchildren and 28 (and counting) great great grandchildren.
Although Grace never acquired a driver鈥檚 licence, she got around Rockglen as an avid walker until the age of 95.
Friends, family and a loving small community have made it possible for Grace Heagy to continue living in her home in Rockglen.聽
