The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.durhamregion.com PAGE 6 THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, APRIL 28,2004 Life at 101: Leah Hendren has plenty of memories BY SHELLEY JORDAN Staff writer CLARINGTON -- Leah Hendren has buried three husbands in the course of her many long, hard years on this earth. She was born into a large family in Quebec in 1903. When her mother passed away in 1908, 5-year-old Leah was sent to live with a neighbour and thus began a scries of struggles that eventually brought her to Bow- manville. While in Quebec, she lived with a neighbour until she found a job at a hotel at the age of 10. "I asked the manager if he needed anyone to work, then went into the kitchen and prayed I would get the job," said Ms. Hendren. Ms. Hendren's prayers came from her desire to escape the prison her new home had become - her guardian's children repeatedly beat her. "I didn't care what I did, as long as I had a job," she said. The manager accepted her offer to work, and Ms. Hendren helped with the laundry, took orders for the kitchen and sold beer from the keg for 10 cents a glass. Her new life instilled in her a fondness for hard work and the rewards it could bring. "They liked me working there," said Ms. Hendren. "I was always a very attentive attentive person, even when young." The job lasted three years, but Ms. Hendren looked to the future. Years passed and she married and moved to Saskatchewan. There, she brought five Maple Festival set for May Day BY SAJID KHAN Special to The Statesman BOWMANVILLE -- The streets of downtown Bowmanville will come alive with food, folks and the spirited sound of jazz on May 1, as the town celebrates Maple Festival Festival and all that Jazz. The event is the first of Downtown Downtown Bowmanyille's annual street festivals, which wind up in October with Applefest. Guests will be able to see a demonstration of how maple syrup is made and then sample it alongside sausages cooked by the St. Johns Men's club. Members of the Kinsmen Club of Bowmanville will be on hand to make their unique elephant ear pastries, pastries, and Bob Schaeffer from Tyrone Tyrone Mills will be cooking up maple doughnuts. There will be plenty for children to enjoy, including a duck pond, carnival carnival rides, pony rides and model trains. Other community organizations taking part are the Bowmanville Horticultural Society and the Bowmanville Bowmanville Museum, which will be offering offering demonstrations of quilting and wood carving. Rounding out the event will be 10 jazz bands. The live music will be featured at five locations locations throughout the day. "This is the first event we have here in spring and it's growing in popularity each year," said Ron Hooper, president of the Bowmanville Bowmanville Downtown Business Improvement Improvement Area. "It's a good opportunity opportunity for people to get downtown and meet with their neighbours and see what Bowmanville has to offer." The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission and parking will be free. Students get down to business BOWMANVILLE -- A new Junior Junior Achievement program is being offered offered in Durham Region, pitting students students against each other as executives in the high-tech business world. JA Titan is geared at Grades 10 to 12 students, and is being offered for the first time in Durham at Bowmanville Bowmanville High School. For eight weeks, students participate in one-hour sessions, where they learn to make decisions decisions on prices, production, marketing, marketing, research and development, and capital investment. The virtual game, which takes students through from initial initial set-up to eventual liquidation of their business, is offered free of charge to high schools by Junior Achievement of Eastern Ontario. The program ill Bowmanville High School is the pilot for the 2003-2004 year. Titan is expected to be offered at more high schools in the 2004-2005 school year, as funding and volunteer resources become available. For more information about the program, contact contact Heather Chalmers, JA program administrator, administrator, at 905-432-2592, ext 204 orhchalmers@jaco.org. children into the world, before her first husband died. Alone but strong, she eventually found love again, and she and her new husband moved to Bowmanville, where they lived on a farm raising 250 hens and a few dairy cows. After a time, darkness penetrated her life again when her second husband became ill and had to be hospitalized. She was left to care for her children on her own. To make ends meet, Ms. Hendren found herself toiling in tobacco fields near Burketon Station. "I used to twist the tobacco on sticks and then go home to milk the cows," she said. Shirley Moffat, registrar of Clarke Museum in Orono said it wasn't unusual unusual for workers to spend the day toiling toiling in tobacco fields while also caring for their own farms. Tobacco operations operations began in the area during the 1940s and some are still in operation today. Ms. Hendren's job required tying harvested leaves to a stick to prepare them for heat curing. It was a seasonal job that only a few could do efficiently, said Ms. Moffat. The job was gruelling but paid well. After a long day spent twisting tobacco, tobacco, Ms. Hendren said she rode the bus from Bowmanville to Whitby to visit her husband. "He went funny," said Ms. Hendren. "The doctors said he was dangerous and arranged for him to go to Whitby Psychiatric. I never forgot him. I always always went (to visit him). I went to Whitby on the Garten bus." Eventually, her second husband died while in the hospital's care. Continuing her hard work, Ms. Hendren was relieved when a gentleman gentleman came along to help her run the Bowmanville farm. Alter a number of months, the pair decided they might as well get married. It was a great decision decision for Ms. Hendren, who said her third husband was a very good man. She joined the Ladies Orange Benevolent Benevolent Society in Tyrone, taking her ethic of hard work into the community. When Ms. Hendren lost her third husband, she moved to Oshawa and started working at a TNT factory in Ajax. During the Second World War, Ajax was home to Defence Industries Limited, where factory workers filled shells that were then used in combat. "We boiled the TNT," said Ms. Hendren. Hendren. "The dynamite came in slabs. I worked there and had to walk part of the way back to Oshawa." Soon she was approached by the town of Oshawa to care for the sick. "One lady... didn't have any linens, so I changed her bed using my own. I gave her a sponge bath and braided her hair. I tried to be very kind." With kitchen skills honed from years of preparing meals from scratch, Ms. Hendren became a cook in the General Motors cafeteria in Oshawa before moving back to Bowmanville. She worked for many years at the Bowmanville Bowmanville Hospital, using her culinary skills to make appetizing meals for patients. patients. Over the years,' Ms. Hendren said she found her strength in God. She Born in 1903, Leah Hendren first came to live in Bowmanville when she was just 5 years old. lived independently until the age of 95, Street has been her home since 1999, when she entered a retirement home, and it was there that she celebrated her Marnwood Lifecare Centre on Elgin 101st birthday March 18. rAZJO'S VeaWcoue ' y v hoi'- <'-• r-iluKiuTii - .. -V A ' " v ( ,i;'h>v \l'Jd i.HG "t tlir.Vi't ' • -1 ' :■ '■ \ I a in L hit r -- r 1 inner-- it r. V: Xri.y '-' KV-7".w. 4 ^ nirtri f I V s ta :,;rt ! i sL'S I il mein 1 Ki„v - .u v-n wir< ;; I I bWi hiked w "I phU h T i'ounJWJ iT"//JT 1 IftN X 'll:.I - EHR) I \ u I' V'UIRJT- I ivt hva U'l 1 KlM-J ' r ' '-N wï •" 'AvJ • " "" X U'i LV.'t •" I I )r-~->rrt Cimier-. k I Mi • :, j r ( jpj'J'1 l.iuiutt j ! ' • * fAZ.10'S 7 DAYS a week I 33 SIMCOI ST. OSIIAV \ (905)571.3042 W\\n.l,t/.io'sri'st,nirjnt.c,i ,, §|? ISjl Riffi; . ' ■ .««BSE* Kl Science 4#: %. InstitutfeqfJlclinotQgyi to.jti . JH m 'i/ 1 ■ University of fqrol DR. P0LANYI IS KNOWN FOR HIS RESEARCH INVOU FIELD OF RESEARCH IN CHEMISTRY - REACTION DY| j. MUCH MORE DETAILED UNDERSTANDING OF HOW C L Thursday, May 6,200 Untyewlty Building One | Lecture ; : ' - 2000 Slmcoe Street North. ■ IlnlvorsItvofC University of Q LOSE UP TO / GOING ON VACATION? BY SUMMER lbs, Get the body you want with Herbal Magic W ■' 7: IX ONLY OM FOR ALL YOUR WEIGHT *Ba»ed on x full program X Vi.v v '/ i X Kelly lost 91 lbs. and 104" 6 - V -, . : e f • v i Vo- ", ■ ' :■ 7 1 „ _ ^ -, mrnmnïrmfê • I N » Ml m I ^ m mi M W m i me c / f / m ml t-EL I ML MLËïLË'LmJK^ÆX- , CC\ ' 77 ■ TODAY, THE BEST WAY TO FIND A 6REAT JOB IS WORKOROLIS.COM. VISIT THE SITE THAT HAS POSTED JOBS FROM 46 OF THE 50 BEST EMPLOYERS IN CANADA, AND PUT THE WORKOPOLIS.COM ADVANTAGE TO WORK FOR YOU. '.com CANADA'S BIGGEST JOB SITE )Q(IR UNFAIR ADVANTAGE SR During Our A Compiny You C»n truit • over 265 locations Don't Be Fooled By Imitations 905-697-9484 905-725-4146 905-432-6999 243 King St, E. 1345 King St, E. 1330 Ritson Rd. N. BOWMANVILLE OSHAWA 2 OSHAWA 1 (BOWMANVILLE MAIL) (KING AND TOWNLINE) (SW CORNER Of RITSON AND TAUNTON) 4 * ▲ A Birthday Célébration Join a Winner! Be a Winner! 4 Over $1 Million 4 * 4 A You could WIN 1 Of 10 two-year leases on a Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor Sport Coupe. Plus thousands of other prizes, . including Instant wins. (No purchase 4 -A in prizes. . necessar y _- see C | U b f 0r details) A GoodLife FITNESS CLUBS Makes it easy' Special 25th Birthday Alternate Day Membership Otter' MONTH DUES MM Mftg HU wf I» chmhl «5 mum to pto sûwlvd hm of IM. UmbnNç * »r Ulwwene - hmdty, H»*kf kH HMv md loTflw nk'mbnm crirTomv n.f«K<prf M TO iWf. «,<«»* m»/ CJuM or Kw/ m*w ovn Bowmanville Mall 243 King St. E. (905) 623-9977 Co-Ed 1 -800-597-1 FIT (1348) w visit ir, .il www qomllifetitmtss com im ,i, luh iumi vu