‘Just keep going’: 100-year-old Fort Erie woman offers advice for longevity

Joan Edwards is one of the very few local residents who can reminisce about the first day the Peace Bridge opened to the public.

This was a special occasion for her for a couple of reasons.

The first one is that she’s a Fort Erie history buff, and the second reason is that it was the day her family moved to town from England.

She was just a toddler at the time, but it’s a little fact she wore proudly while being interviewed by Fort Erie Radio at her 100th birthday celebration on Friday afternoon.

Joined by a group of family members at The Barrel, she wore a sash and a tiara to mark the special occasion.

Not knowing a reporter would be stopping by to ask about her life, she was a bit shy at first.

“Just keep going,” she said when asked what the key to longevity in life is.

But then she started to open up and share more about herself, telling Fort Erie Radio that she and her two older sisters, Stella and Joyce, spent a lot of time playing at what is known today as Sugarbowl Park. They referred to it back then as “the mud hole” and then they came up with an idea, finding a better name for the municipality to adopt.

Lo and behold, her suggestion of “the Sugarbowl” was implemented and remains the popular park’s name today.

“It just caught on,” she said.

Edwards and both her sisters would begin working at Fleet during the Second World War.

She worked there from 1941 to 1990 and served various roles in multiple departments of the aircraft manufacturer that remains active currently.

She wrapped up her final years as a factory clerk.

Edwards was also an accomplished athlete, a champion bowler and member of a championship-winning softball team that prevailed over teams from Niagara as well as New York state.

Mayor Wayne Redekop stopped by to bring Edwards greetings on behalf of the local government, also taking a stroll down memory lane with her about the history of both their families and how they surely crossed paths at some point in town.

Edwards, who still lives at home on her own and drives her own car, had a request of Redekop when he first arrived.

“Tell your guys to leave my driveway open,” she joked with him, referring to snowplows creating windrows at the end of her driveway.

Some of the family in attendance on Friday included her nieces Beverley Schmid and Barb Graves, as well as her great niece Breanne Henning Maulucci.

“She’s living her best life,” said Graves.

Maulucci also set up an opportunity on Facebook for people who know Edwards to wish her birthday greetings on the popular ‘Fort Erie-Our Town’ page, to which dozens of people left comments and likes.

Edwards does not have any children. Her husband David Edwards died in 2001.

Her parents, Anne and George Staddon, owned a bakery at the corner of Idlewylde Street and Central Avenue.

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