Still belting it out at 100

Full of high spirits. She's impervious to embarrassment, her columnist son said

From: Canada.com, 2003-03-27
Date added: 2003-04-02

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"I feel like singing all the time," Theresia Schaelin-Auf der Maur declared. And sing she did. Feeling happy on her 100th birthday, she let go and belted out an enthusiastic, high-pitched rendition of Au Claire de la Lune, Mon Ami. Three verses of it. It was what family and friends and indeed many readers of The Gazette who got to know her through this paper had come to expect. Before her son, city councillor, boulevardier and journalist Nick Auf der Maur, died five years ago, he often chronicled his mother's eccentric exploits in his newspaper columns. "My mother is impervious to embarrassment," he wrote on her 87th birthday, "quite mad, some would say, but, after all, at a certain age, you don't have to give two hoots about what anyone else thinks of you, and I suppose there is a sense of freedom and independence in that."

Although her eyesight is failing and she's hard of hearing, Schaelin-Auf der Maur remains as high spirited as she always was - nothing at all to be embarrassed about. More than 100 people attended the birthday party and mass yesterday afternoon at the Father Dowd Home. The Pope sent his blessing, the queen sent her greetings, as did Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. There was birthday cake and ice cream for everyone.

Her granddaughter, Melissa, picked up a guitar and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow. "She's lived a full, full, full life. She's been my biggest inspiration," Melissa said. "She prays every day. She's close to the guardian angels, that's what's kept her happy every day of her life." As they have done every year for the past 35, her family took her out to the Alpenhaus restaurant for a birthday lunch on Monday. On the same day she dropped in to see the Swiss consul, who wished her many happy returns of the day.

Theresia Schaelin-Auf der Maur was born on March 26, 1903, in Sachlseln, Switzerland. She traces her ancestry to Nicholas von Flue, a 15th century Swiss peasant, soldier and statesman, who was later made a saint. She and her husband emigrated to Montreal in 1928, the same year they were married, and had two daughters and two sons.

Asked for the secret of her longevity, she had this advice: "Do everything, but don't ever go to extremes."

-Pierre Obendrauf, The Gazette
Thank you Cathy for e-mailing :)
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