TISDALE — Florence Enderson celebrated her 102nd birthday at Newmarket Place, with her daughter Donna Eremko beside her.
Her nickname at Newmarket Place is “Sure Shot” due to her deadly aim while competing in beanbag tosses – her favorite game.
She credits her aim due to shooting squirrels years back.
“I had to,” Enderson replied.
“They would get in the grain, we would have so darn many of them and mom would ‘ka-bang,’” Eremko explained.
When asked what she wants people to know about her, her response was simple.
“I want them to know I can ride horses.”
Enderson worked on a farm for most of her life, until she was 99 years old.
“Mom never really did retire from farming,” Eremko said.
The thing that gave her the most joy in life was taking the calves out to pasture.
“I liked the farm, I liked being on the farm,” Enderson said. “I liked cows... I liked to feed them, I liked to milk them.”
Her favorite animal story though didn’t involve cows. It involved her daughter and a run-in with the family ram.
“We used to have this big ol’ ram, and he was big, and he was friendly, but he liked to bunt you if you were bent over or anything like that,” Eremko said. “I was probably seven or eight, and my grandfather or dad had given me these mirrored sunglasses. As a kid they were bright green and they had these mirrors. I sat them down on a scale and did something, I don’t remember what. I turn around and there’s a green arm of the sunglasses sticking out of his mouth, because he ate everything he could find.”
That wasn’t the end of those glasses though.
“So then I had one frame with no lens and the earpiece. I wore those.”
It wasn’t all work for Enderson. Later in her life she went on trips around the world with her daughter. Places visited included Hawaii, Arizona, Los Vegas, Florida and British Columbia.
“After I got married, mostly,” Eremko said. “My husband was a school teacher so him and I didn’t get many vacations together. I worked in the bank and couldn’t get summer holidays when he was off so mom and I went quite a few places.”
“We had to have fun,” Enderson said.
Despite all the various places they travelled, visiting British Columbia was her favorite.
“Mom had a sister in West Vancouver,” Eremko said. “The first time we went there we went in February for mom’s birthday.”
“We just about froze to death out there; the beds were wet at night.”
When the two were asked how that could have been better than Hawaii they laughed in response.
“They were all good,” Eremko said.
With a little suggestion from Eremko, Enderson said the next trip they would take together would be the Dominican Republic.
“Maybe go to the ocean,” Enderson replied.
Looking ahead to the future she said she doesn’t have plans, instead she’ll see what her family is planning.
“I don’t know what the plans are, I don’t think too much is happening,” Enderson said. “I’m not planning anything, but I don’t know what they’ve got planned.”
Enderson said the reason she had such a good, long and happy life started with her parents.
“They let me do what I want.”
“As I remember, grandpa made me toe the line,” her daughter responded. “How come you got away with everything?”
Donna Newbery, recreation co-ordinator with Newmarket Place, had her own suggestion why.
“Maybe because she was Sure Shot.”
