Oldest in Canada - Human Interest Story

The woman believed to be the oldest living Canadian has died in B.C. at the age of 112.

___ was born in 1899 in Guangdong, China — four years before the Wright brothers first flight and nearly 10 years before the first Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line.

Her husband, ___, came to Canada in 1911 and later returned to China to marry her. He would return often to Canada to work and go back home to visit his growing family of three children.

Those were some very hard times for her ...

"Second World War, she had a very difficult time raising the family.

In 1954, she was allowed to immigrate with her children, settling in Vancouver's Chinatown.

In 1967, her husband died and the family moved to East Vancouver.

When she was 90, she underwent brain surgery, but recovered and soon after that, she travelled the world with many of her family members, visiting Germany, France, Italy.

They returned to China for a visit at a tumultuous time — the democratic uprising of the late 1980s, when tanks rolled in the streets and hundreds of protesters were killed... 1989, Tienanmen Square. She is there.  

She last flew on a passenger jet on a visit to California in 2010, when she was 111.

Fung's 112th birthday last Jan. 27 was marked with a proclamation from the City of Vancouver and a letter from the Queen.

She had some quarrels with modern society, especially skimpy bathing suits, and wore nothing less than a dress on a visit to the beach in Hawaii.

She also believed tap water could be contaminated and insisted on only drinking water that had been boiled.

... survived by a son, daughter, 14 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. 

With files from the CBC's Tim Week


This woman is a very lucky person to live to so great an age.  She can be seen as an example to us all to keep trying to improve and stay alert.   A person may be here on this Earth for a long, long time.  We will need all our strength and faculties to be able to enjoy the later years and to continue to learn and travel the world the way she did.


The lady's name was left off this blog entry for the sake of privacy for the family.