That’s because it’s not every day you get a chance to cut a cake on your 90th birthday, and do so with plenty of well-wishers around to offer congratulations – and thanks – for a long life well lived.
Irene Gaudaur – nee Worrall – was born on Feb. 27, 1930 in Birmingham, England and grew up in a tumultuous time for the United Kingdom.
The clouds of war were gathering when she was still in grade school, and it was only a matter of time before the worst came to Birmingham.
“We lived through the war, I was nine years old when the bombing started, and they bombed Birmingham because it was an industrial city,” Gaudaur said as a steady stream of well-wishers stopped to chat. “I lived on the outskirts of the city, not far from Coventry, either, so it was tough for awhile.”
But into every life some good must come, and for Irene back in those dark days, it was meeting air force pilot John Gaudaur. Two dated and fell in love, setting in motion an epic journey that would see Irene cross the Atlantic and settle in Canada.
“The war brides were all coming here at that time, but I wasn’t married,” she said. “My husband paid for tickets for me to travel, to come here by plane, and he made arrangements to be looked after by Canada House in London.”
Modern aircraft can make a trans-Atlantic crossing in only a few hours, city to city. Back in the late-40s, things weren’t quite as simple, as Irene would explain.
“I had a telegram from Canada House telling me I was to be in London on the Monday and I left on the Tuesday on a plane,” she said. “It was a double-decker plane, and we ended up landing at Gander, Newfoundland, went from there to Sydney, Nova Scotia, landed again and then from there to Montreal. Then a train ride from Quebec to Trenton, Ont.”
They were married a month later in Frankford, Ont. near Trenton, where John had found work as an electrician.
Their oldest son, John Jr., was born in 1978 and Peter, James and Linda followed soon after. James was born with spina bifida and required constant care before passing away at the age of 20 in 1972.
It was shortly after James passed that the family would find themselves making stops in Ottawa and Rivers, Man. before coming to the Friendly City where John was stationed at then-CFB Moose Jaw.
It was around that time Irene found her passion – working as a nurses assistant at Valleyview Centre, where she would spend 10 years. And when Providence Place opened in 1994 she was one of the first volunteers to set up in the new facility.
“I came with the residents, they moved from St. Anthony’s up on the hill and we had a tour, there were 100 people in the volunteers at that time,” Irene said. “I had a car and I used to take the residents to their appointment with the doctor and to the park in the summer time.”
When she wasn’t volunteering, Irene also spent plenty of time at First Baptist Church back when her family lived on Vaughn Street before moving to Westmount Baptist Church closer to her apartment on South Hill.
Irene still lives in that apartment on Couteau Street, and with the help of some of her 13 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, lives a regular, active life.
“There are so many great memories, there were some tough times but I’ve always had family and friends and that’s the most important thing,” she said.
