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Elise Able turns 107
Remarkable life continues by Janet Smellie
NNSL (July 9/97) - A special celebration was held last week for Elise Abel, a woman many believe to be the oldest person in the Northwest Territories.
Abel, who turned the remarkable age of 107 on Saturday, was born in Rocher River near Fort Resolution on July 5, 1890.
Father Giles Mousseau, the chancellor for the Catholic Diocese, attended Abel's birthday party on Friday.
He said it was because of the old baptismal books kept by the missionaries in Fort Chipewyan that they were able to track Abel's age.
Mousseau, who through records was able to track her life from Fort Resolution to Fort Rae, described her as "a survivor" who "had many tough times."
She married at the very young age of 17. She had 10 children with her first husband, Basil Aze, but none of them survive, Mousseau said.
Aze passed away in 1939. Abel remarried Joseph Abel in the 1950s. Her second husband passed away in 1988.
"She's spent her last eight or nine birthdays with us here. It's a remarkable achievement and we're lucky to have her with us," said Raija McLelland, an Aven staff member.
"Some of the staff said that when she first came here she liked to joke around and was always dancing. We thought some traditional native music and a tape recorder would be a nice gift." |