LAC LA BICHE - Living past the age of 100 is impressive in itself, but sharing that distinction with a sibling is truly momentous.
Mary Senetza is 100. Mary is the younger sister of Dorothy Switz who is 102.
The two centenarian siblings were together for a long-awaited reunion last week at the LacAlta Lodge seniors’ home in Lac La Biche. Switz is a resident at LacAlta and her younger sister lives in a seniors’ home in Leduc. Due to challenges associated with their ages, medical issues, distance and the recent four years of pandemic restrictions, the two hadn’t been face-to-face since 2015.
The separation has been tough on the ladies who have shared an inseparable bond since childhood, say Senatza’s daughters Linda Parsons and Rhonda Lechasseur.
“Linda and I had been trying to plan this for years,” Lechasseur told Lakeland This Week during the recent reunion. “We weren’t only waiting for the pandemic to wind down, but decided it was best to choose a time when our mother and our aunt were feeling well enough for such a visit.”
Senetza and Switz were feeling very good at the that took place at the end of June.
The two made the most of their time together, sitting down for dinner before digging into some old photo albums and memory boxes where many of their most cherished memories — some almost as old as they are — were preserved.
The walk down memory lane includes a lot of history for the two sisters.
At the start of the 1900s, their parents, William and Wilhelmina Koerner, migrated from Nebraska to the Athabasca region to begin homesteading, eventually having 13 children. The “Roaring Twenties” may have brought booming economic times to urban areas, but in rural Alberta, life changed little for farming families who scraped out a living on small plots of land, said Senetza, recalling memories from her childhood.
“It could be a very tough existence at times,” she told Lakeland This Week, explaining that the family grew crops, hunted for game in nearby forests, fished, and grew a large garden. “We were very poor. One year, winter came early, freezing the garden and destroying most of the food we had grown. Then one day, our father found a $10 bill. This was a miracle, as we were then able to buy enough supplies to get us through the winter.”
Despite the hardships of the era, there were also many good times. The girls spent their free time playing with dolls, riding horses, and, when they got a bit older, pitching and batting for local softball and baseball teams.
“We had the largest house in the community. Quite often, our family hosted dances where everyone came to socialize and dance,” Switz said, sharing the memories with her sister and smiling brightly as she reminisced about those days. “Christmas was an especially joyful time in our home, and while we didn’t have an abundance of material things, we were happy.”
Wandering River and Lac La Biche
The sisters finished their schooling and got married just as the dark shadow of World War II fell over the globe. While their childhood may have been marked by scarcity and hardship, the war years brought with them a surprising newfound prosperity. Dorothy married Otto Switz, who owned a farm in the Wandering River area. Mary tied the knot with Humphrey Senetza, a well-known school-teacher who later in his career would be the principal at the high school in Lac La Biche.
“My husband and I owned 14 milk cows and made good money selling milk to plants to be made into cream,” Switz explained. “Sure, it was hard work, but we enjoyed it just the same.”
A few years after the war ended, Switz, her husband, and their own children relocated to Plamondon for a time. She has worked at various jobs during her lifetime, including in a sawmill in Golden, BC. During that same time, Senetza put down roots in Lac La Biche, where she was employed as an office manager at the local hospital until her retirement in 1984. In more recent years, she stayed with one of her daughters until moving to the Lacalta Lodge a year ago.
During the catch-up and conversation with Lakeland This Week, the siblings also spoke about many of the major world events they experienced in their lifetimes, including the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the polio epidemic, the introduction of the television into homes, and the moon landing. The one historical occurrence that truly stands out in Senetza’s mind was the attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941.
“I was really shocked when I heard the news,” she stated. “I had two brothers serving overseas in the Canadian Army at the time.”
More visits
There is a lot of history in more than 200 years of combined life events, so the sisters and their families say this latest reunion will hopefully be the start of many more.
“It brought back so many memories of the long life we’ve had together,” said Switz, joking that perhaps because they have each lived more than 100 years, the recent eight year gap was just a blip. “When I first saw my sister after so long, I was so happy she hadn’t changed.”
The feelings of gratitude and joy are shared by Senetza, saying their inseparable bond that has lasted for more than a century will continue.
“Not many people live to be this age,” she said. “Since we’re all that’s left of our family, we really need to stay close and be there for one another.”
The families are scheduling more visit in the coming months.
