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Red Deer woman who lived through Spanish Flu celebrates 105 years

Violet Elliot was born in Scotland in 1917
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Violet Elliot, who turns 105 years old on Feb. 6, says to take each day as it comes. She is joined here by her son, Rob Elliot. (Photo by Paul Cowley/Advocate staff)

For those who worry about the future or wonder how best to live a good life, Red Deer’s Violet Elliot has some advice.

“Take each day as it comes. And the way will open for you,” says Elliot.

Considering she will have lived more than 38,000 days when she celebrates her 105th birthday on Sunday, it’s safe to consider that expert advice.

Elliot was born in Loch Winnoch, Scotland on Feb. 6, 1917. Canada, her future home, was only 50 years old and the Great War would grind on for another 21 months.

Trained as a public health nurse, Elliot’s duties included administering small pox vaccines during an outbreak in Glasgow in the early 1940s.

“The factories had me vaccinating their workers,” says Elliot, who lives at Villa Marie continuing care home.

While living in Scotland, she met a young Canadian soldier, Jim Elliot in Edinburgh. They met through Jim’s sister, Nancy, who had come to Scotland from Canada to work as a housekeeper.

Jim, who grew up in the Coronation area, was soon head over heels for Violet and proposed marriage.

“He proposed to me and I turned him down,” she says with a smile. “I wasn’t going to go to Canada. I had a good job.”

Undeterred, Jim would continue visiting her and they would tour the area when he was on leave from the army.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she recalls. “He worked his charm on me.”

The two would be married in 1943. Jim, who fought in North Africa, Italy, Holland Germany, returned to Canada after the war and was discharged in Calgary.

Violet followed him to Canada shortly after. “The Canadian government brought the war brides back separately,” says Violet’s son, Rob, one of her four sons the couple had together.

The couple moved to a small village called Marwayne, northwest of Lloydminster. His father went into real estate and insurance and was also involved in the Alberta Treasury Branch.

His mother with her nursing experience soon became an indispensable go-to person for anyone who needed help.

“The community came to her for nursing. We had a baby born in our house Saturday night, after the fights we would have some guy leaking (blood) on our doorstep and she’d patch things up.

“I remember one time there was a guy who got shot in the leg. Guess where they went? They pulled up at our place so she could put things back together.”

The family left there in the early 1960s and went to Vermilion, where Violet was a public health nurse in a rural nursing station in a nearby community.

They later came to Red Deer where she continued her work as a public health nurse and his father ran Elliot Agencies insurance in Sylvan Lake.

His mother continued nursing until she was 65, when the rules of the day dictated she had to retire.

However, around that time Red Deer College was looking for candidates to fill its nursing program.

“I said I’ll go,” says Violet.

Violet and a group of other women started their degrees in Red Deer and then travelled together to Edmonton to take their classes there. Four years later, she graduated with a nursing degree.

For many years, she continued to volunteer at immunization clinics and help out in any other way she could in Red Deer. Her husband passed away in 1997 at the age of 88.

Throughout her life she has been active in the Sunnybrook United Church and organizations such as Order of the Eastern Star.

Violet says she has lived a happy life.

“I had a good husband and very good sons.”

Rob says he and his brothers admire their mother for her life well lived.

“She’s survived two pandemics. The first one in 1919,” he says. “I often thought she should get her antibodies checked to see if she’s got any from the Spanish Flu.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and health restrictions followed, Violet took it in stride.

“She just laughed it off. She said I’ve been through this before.”

All four of her sons will join her at Villa Marie to celebrate her birthday. She also has three grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.



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