Thorhild resident celebrates 100th birthday

By Irene van der Kloet

Thorhild seniors’ home NewThorad Seniors Housing recently celebrated the 100th birthday of one of their residents, Elma Bondarenko.

Elma was born in Meeting Creek, AB, and when she was five years old, her parents moved to the Thorhild area, where they homesteaded. Elma is the middle child of five, with an older brother and sister and two younger brothers, twins.

Once she entered grade one, she walked two and a half miles to school every day. In the winter, her parents would hook up horses and sleigh and bring their children to school, along with a cousin who lived across the road.

Elma attended school up to grade eight, then she came to work on the farm and shortly after, she got married to Victor Bondarenko, her high school sweetheart. Victor had his mixed farm with chickens, turkeys, geese, cows and pigs. “When you have a cow, you have milk, butter, cream, you will never go hungry,” Elma says. Victor and Elma had two daughters, Janet and Irene, who went to school in Thorhild.

They lived on the farm until Victor retired at 65, then they moved into town, and she has been living there ever since. At first, when she moved there, she knew most people in Thorhild, but over the years, people came and went, so now she doesn’t know as many people anymore.

Victor passed away just before 2000. Elma has five grandchildren, several great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. The youngest great-great-grandchild is a boy, just a few months old.

Her children and grandchildren do not all live near Thorhild. Elma mentions that her granddaughter Corinne lives in Ontario and visited her last summer. Elma’s daughters visited her for her birthday.

Memorizing some events from when she was younger, Elma chuckles at her experience with high heels. She loved to dance; she and her husband often went to Weasel Creek Hall to dance. Elma was dressing up and had bought a pair of three-inch high-heeled dancing shoes. But it wasn’t easy to learn how to walk on them, and she twisted her ankle. The doctor was ten miles away, so her uncle fixed it. “He just pulled on it, and it went into place,” Elma laughs.

The seniors’ lodge celebrates birthdays once a month, and Elma’s birthday is celebrated on February 4th. It is a unique celebration because Elma turned 100. It will be celebrated with the Alan Libby band from Redwater.