Centenarian has few secrets for long life, other than good genes and a good wife

He doesn’t hear as well as he used to and admits he doesn’t sleep that well either. But Richard “Dick” Stokes, age 100, is spry enough not to need a hand rising from a sofa.

Formerly an avid golfer, he gets his exercise these days walking daily from his home in Carlton House on Oak Bay Avenue to the Monterey Centre.

“I’m not that excited about it,” Stokes said about hitting the age milestone this week. He spoke from a cozy front room at the seniors residence where he’s lived for two years. “It doesn’t feel that different.”

Stokes’ family – son Robert, three grandsons and three great grandchildren – were due to come from Vancouver on his birthday Wednesday to take him for a celebration at Victoria Golf Club, a course where he caddied as a boy.

Stokes lived with his parents on Davie Street in Oak Bay from the age of two until he married. He worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway most of his life, starting out as a purser on the original Princess Marguerite before ending up as the chief station agent in Victoria’s Belleville Street terminal. He remembers one particular trip on the Marguerite, the last run of the summer in 1939.

“We got into Juneau (Alaska) and the customs officer who used to stay awhile (after the ship docked) brought a newspaper and held it up: it said Great Britain had declared war on Germany, had started the war.”

He didn’t serve in the war, instead staying on at the station, pushing the troops through to their ships.

He later met his future wife Jessie (Jay) at a logging camp, where he’d tagged along with a friend delivering a truck. “I had intended to just stay a day or two, but ended up staying two weeks.”

The couple got married, rented a house on Beach Drive for $35 a month and lived there for two years before building their own place on Musgrave Street. They had two sons, Robert and Richard.

Stokes gave up golf after coming home one day to find Jay unconscious on the floor of the Beach Drive condominium they moved into after 25 years in the Musgrave house.

She’d had a stroke. Although she rallied, she died two years ago, having been married to Dick for 65 years. That’s when he moved into Carlton House.

Quick with a smile and a wave for friends and staff passing by, Stokes said good genes – his mother also lived to 100 – and a good wife helped him become a centenarian.

“I did all the things boys did, you know, used to go to the pubs as much as any. I didn’t do anything special.”

vmoreau@saanichnews.com