100 years young: Shirley Bowler shares memories of a long life well lived

Normally when writing a story about someone who has lived a long life, there’s quite a bit of research that has to go into it. Facts that have to be checked and tales that have to be corroborated with others, simply because, well, when a person starts getting near their second century, memory can become an issue.

That’s not the case with Shirley Bowler.

No, when a Moose Jaw Express reporter chatted with her on the day of her recent birthday, it was Shirley who was doing the fact-checking with her son Dave, rolling through memories and dates and places like they were yesterday.

What makes it utterly remarkable is that birthday, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, saw Shirley Bowler turn 100 years old.

To put it simply, Shirley is as sharp as a tack. And her life has spanned growing up in the Great Depression, living through the Second World War, two journeys across the Atlantic Ocean, decades of teaching in Moose Jaw and on and on.

So where to begin?

At the start, naturally.

Shirley Peechey was one of three girls born to Gertrude and Eugene Peechey on a farm “four miles south and half-a-mile east” near Briercrest on Dec. 8, 1919. It was there she grew up until she was nearly 20, attending grade school in Roseville and high school in Briercrest before going to college in 1941 to become a teacher. She ended up teaching in Clinton for two years before her life would take a rather dramatic turn.

“That’s when I met Joe,” Shirley said, referring to the man who would become her husband of more than 50 years. Training as a pilot as the Second World War raged in Europe, Joe was a policeman from Manchester, England. The two just happened to be at the same dance at Temple Gardens one night and the two hit it off.

“That’s how it all started,” Shirley said. “That was a terrible winter out at Clinton, it was minus-60 some of the days, so we never got in from Moose Jaw. Then we come in from Moose Jaw in the spring and we had letters to mail and I walk into the post office and who did I meet, slam-bang, none other than Mr. Bowler. And it went from there.”

They were married on Oct. 30 of that year, and when the time eventually came for Joe to enter the war, Shirley followed. Travelling in the late 1940s wasn’t the simple drive-and-fly over a few hours it is today. From Regina to Winnipeg to Montreal to Hoboken, New Jersey to a ship across the Atlantic, it was a month of travel to get to Devonshire, England where they’d make their home for three years.

Joe only had to fly a single survey mission before Germany surrendered, and it wasn’t long after that the young couple’s oldest son Gene was born on Dec. 3, 1945. Of course, life in war-torn Great Britain wasn’t pleasant at the time, and it wasn’t long before they made a major decision.

“We had to queue up for fish, I had Gene in the pram and it was a cold winter day,” Shirley explained. “Then just as I got to the end of the line, the last piece of fish went ahead of me, so I go back and open the door and Joe is coming down the stairs from night duty [as a police officer] and I think my face was a little bit long. So he said ‘that’s it, we’re going back to Canada.’”

So back across the Atlantic it was, including a “beautiful, beautiful” trip down the St. Lawrence and into Montreal. An uncomfortably warm train ride to Regina and soon after Shirley’s parents got to meet Gene for the first time.

After a few years farming with Shirley’s family, they decided to move to Moose Jaw, where Joe would eventually become a superintendent at Cushing Millworks.

He ended up building a trailer and moving it to River Street for one year before buying a home on Ominica St. East. Into every life difficulty must sow, though…

“We found out we were on an old garbage dump,” Shirley said, laughing at a not-so-funny memory at the time. “So we moved to Brown Street, cost us $5 to move and that really bothered me because we had no idea there was a dump there. We went to start a garden and were digging up tin cans and everything.”

It was on Brown Street they’d make their home, and it was in 1950 when youngest son Dave was born. The family lived there for 30 years before Joe retired and began building the family’s current home on Daisy Crescent.

While that was going on, Shirley resumed her teaching career and spent 15 years at William Grayson and another six at Palliser Heights before retiring in 1979.

Joe passed away in 1997 at the age of 82, and the family lost Gene due to cancer in 2008.

Shirley, meanwhile, has plenty of support from Dave, who lives in Moose Jaw and keeps a close eye on his mom. Then there are the other residents who live around her on Daisy Crescent.

“Oh, my neighbours!” she said excitedly when asked how she keeps going. “That’s why I’m in my house, you know. If it wasn’t for them and David and [wife] Nora, I’d have to be somewhere else.”

Shirley feels those friendships are also a major part of how she lived to be 100.

“It’s because of all the people,” she said. “It’s not what I ate or drank or anything, it’s because I’ve had wonderful people around me my whole life, 99.9 per cent of it, and that has helped so much. It’s definitely not what I ate because I pig out on chocolate, etcetera… but Dad lived to be 90 and my mom lived to be 105. December babies in our family tend to live long lives.”

As one might expect, this Christmas holiday will be a hum-dinger for the Bowler family.

The whole crew will be in town, including Dave’s son and daughter Brad and Megan, along with Gene’s sons Steven and Chris. The families will have their six great-grandchildren along for Shirley to fuss over.

And then there’s the party.

Shirley’s family and friends are holding a 100th birthday celebration on Sunday, Dec. 22 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Zion United Church Social Hall.

All are welcome to stop by and say hello, have a piece of cake and a cup of coffee. Just be sure to bring only yourself – the Bowlers have asked for no gifts.