WEEKEND PROFILE: Toni Van Buekenhout
Toni Van Buekenhout turned 100 yesterday.
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Toni Van Buekenhout was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the recognition Friday morning as fellow residents and staff at Courtyard Gardens congratulated her on her 100th birthday.
Born on Nov. 20, 1909, in the small town of Grandview, Manitoba, Van Buekenhout and her family have lived in the Lower Mainland for decades.
Her father was born in Paris, but she married a Belgian man, and had three children, and now has seven great grandchildren.
Van Buekenhout, who speaks French but doesn’t have anyone to speak it with, said the world truly has changed a lot since her younger days.
Long before computers became common in households across North America, Van Buekenhout recalls technology costing her a job.
She worked at a whisky bottling plant, but insists she didn’t take any extra nips, and that that’s why she’s lived so long.
“I would put the bottles in the machine, the machine would come and...they’d fill the bottles, and I put the cork on. That’s how we did it, but then they found a better way of doing it, and then they shipped it to Montreal to do the work, so I was out of a job then.”
She recalls pitting olives, one after the other, on a machine with her foot, and after she’d filled up a whole gallon drum, she was paid 35 cents.
But Van Buekenhout really excelled at what she did to the point her employer moved her into the office, so they wouldn’t have to pay her as much.
“It’s really hard for me to believe I’ve reached this birthday.”
How has the world changed since you were a child?
“I was never spoiled that way. I haven’t got a computer and I know a lot of people, they’re up on this, but I’m not. I do everything the hard way.”
How have you managed to stay healthy so long?
“Just taking care of myself and I don’t go overboard on going out, or drinking a lot. I don’t drink. I don’t mind a beer if we have one of these nights we have, but as a rule, I just like a quiet life.”
