Faith, knitting, and no sugar: 102-year-old Yukoner's keys to a good, long life

They'll be cutting cake on Tuesday at Whistle Bend Place in Whitehorse, when resident Mary Merchant celebrates her 102nd birthday. Merchant spent her earlier years in Scotland, Argentina and Quebec, but moved to Whitehorse 24 years ago to be closer to her son, Philip.

Merchant spoke to CBC this week about her life, and some of her secrets of longevity.

Her comments have been edited and condensed for clarity. 

On her early years

I was born in Scotland in 1917.

My father went to out to Argentina, to Buenos Aires, to represent the Bank of London in South America. And so that's how [my parents] went to the Argentine. My mother came back to Scotland when she was expecting me — on the last ship that was allowed to carry women and children, because it was during the war.

And so I was born in Scotland, and I didn't see my father until I was two, because we couldn't get back to Argentina. We went back to Argentina and I grew up there. I did my nurse's training in the British hospital there. 

I always enjoyed helping people. [Nursing]'s really a wonderful career, because you get back what you give. It is a wonderful career, I think, for girls to take up. And men.

We did start the fire alarm in the hall last year, when we had the cake.- Mary Merchant

My husband was in Burma during the [Second World War] and when he came back from the war, we were married shortly after that. We were married 25 years. He was a very good man and he was a ranch manager of a big ranch in Argentina, so we lived on the ranch. It was a wonderful life.

I had to go down on the riverboat to Buenos Aires to have the children. I was very lucky. Everybody was good, healthy. 

On coming to Canada

My sister came out to Montreal. She was married to somebody who worked for the Bank of Montreal. We came out to be near her. So I did some training in the Royal Vic[toria Hospital] in Montreal, and started nursing again. After a few years that I had the children, I didn't work. So that's been my life.

I guess there's a lot of changes in nursing. Before we used to just go into a ward and learn on the job. Now you have to have special training before you can go into working at a hospital. I don't think I'd be able to work now as a nurse, there's too much technology!

On living a good, long life

Everybody asks me what I've been doing all these years. I say I've just been living a good life — that's all. 

And no sugar — that's the main thing. I was born during the war, in Scotland, and there was sugar rationing so everybody gave up sugar, and that's how I never took sugar. Because my mother never took sugar.

I do a lot of knitting. I've knitted socks for years and years and years. I learned to knit when I was about six, and I'm still knitting socks but I can't see very well at the moment. It keeps your fingers busy.

During the war, they gave out wool so everybody could make socks. They gave us a pattern. So we're still using the same pattern for men's socks. I used to knit sweaters, and all that.

I've always been an Anglican. My mother had me baptized at the Anglican church when I was nine days old.

I think that you have to have faith. Faith is a very important thing in your life. I don't think I'd have got through my life if it hadn't been for my faith in God.

On marking her birthday

I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends and having a big cake.

I suppose I'll have a cake and lots of candles. My son tries to put all the candles on the cake, but it's a hard job to put so many on. We did start the fire alarm in the hall last year, when we had the cake.