She may now be 100 years old, but local resident Alice McKitterick is in far better shape than some people decades younger than her.
McKitterick turned 100 on Jan. 27. Her family held a big birthday party for her at the Olds Legion. More than 100 people attended.
McKitterick still lives in her own home, doesn't use a wheelchair or walker and drives her own car.
"The good lord gave me a healthy body," she said during an interview with the Albertan.
"I have never dieted, I like a lot of food. I like good food, and when I eat, I don't nibble at anything. And I eat good things and bad things -- in moderation," she said, adding although she doesn't drink much alcohol, she will have the occasional cold beer.
McKitterick said family genes may be part of the secret to her longevity.
"My father lived to 103," she said.
McKitterick is proud of her independence.
"My car is a 2006 and I haven't a scratch on it," she said. "I use it for getting groceries, going to church, going to my doctor appointments. So I don't abuse my driving."
McKitterick has some advice for Prince Philip who recently got into an accident near the Royal Family's Sandringham estate.
"You have to wear your seatbelt and you've got to be watching the front and the sides and the rear, you've got to be watching everything," she said.
McKitterick still lives by herself, cooks and looks after herself.
"I have someone come in and do my lawn and snow shovelling and I do everything else," she said.
McKitterick was raised on a farm in the Hainstock district, about 10 miles west of Olds.
She and her first husband, Paul Smith, moved to a farm about four miles north of Olds on Highway 2A.
They had five children.
Sadly, Paul passed away in 1957, leaving Alice with her oldest child 15 and the youngest just five years old.
She raised them all by herself, while working the mixed farm, with help from her oldest son Don and the occasional hired hand.
One son, Royle Smith, relived some of those memories during the birthday party.
"We grew up on welfare. We had nothing, but we never lacked love. We had so much love and that was the foundation, of I think all these kids' success in our family, that we just grew up with love," he said.
"We grew up with faith. We went to Sunday school (at) the church. We did everything. She believed so much in God. But she had nothing. She gave her whole life to us; her whole life.
"We'd have one chicken that would have to feed five people. And she'd boil it and we'd have it and a potato, but she'd be the last one (to eat) and that's all the food we had.
"We had hot rocks. A rock that she'd put on top of the wood stove to give us on our feet when we'd go to bed because it was so cold," he said.
"I just wish I could be one-tenth of her. A beautiful lady."
McKitterick admitted that period was "tough."
"We didn't have electricity and we didn't have a telephone," she recalled.
"We used coal and wood stoves at first and then as time went on, why we improved and the children got their education and they all went their way and did marvellously, as they are now. The children all pitched in. We managed fine."
In the 1970s, once the children had grown up, she married a good friend, Peter McKitterick, originally from Ireland. He worked in the oilpatch as a driller.
That led to a pretty interesting life.
"We travelled a lot you know, with the oilpatch. We spent two years overseas in Scotland. We lived in Aberdeen. And we also went to Bahrain (in the Middle East)."
Peter McKitterick passed away in 2000.
Alice never married again.
"He was the love of my life," she said.
During her 100th birthday party, Alice, a huge hockey fan, was presented with a Calgary Flames jersey.
"I was very pleased, very pleased, because I don't miss a game," she said. "They're all my favourites, all the team are."
She agreed the Flames are doing well this year. She'd like to see them go deep in the playoffs, but is not guaranteeing they'll win the Stanley Cup.
"Well, they could, but I can't promise that," she said with a laugh. "I'm hopeful that they do."
McKitterick said over the years, the biggest changes she's noticed are the improvements made to farming.
"The days when I was doing it, they did cutting with binders and stooking, things like that," she said.
"And they all came in and they had three great big meals a day, every day, not just the wives put out a sandwich for their husbands now for their lunch. They came home with a great big — just like a big dinner.
"Now the farming has definitely grown and people farm more farms. They didn't farm as many at that time because they couldn't handle them."
She's also amazed at the advent of computers and smartphones.
