One of the country’s oldest residents has died.
Freda Muriel Fennel died June 22 in Peace Arch Hospital’s Weatherby Pavilion. She was 105.
“She was quite a neat old girl,” said Georgina Anderson, Fennel’s niece.
Born in Birmingham, England on May 14, 1909, Fennel had lived in White Rock since 1976, in a home on a Victoria Avenue lot that her father bought in 1920 to use as a summer cabin.
As a child, Fennel lived in New Westminster and Burnaby, but spent summers and holidays at the cabin, Anderson said.
The second oldest of four children – all of whom are now gone – Fennel and her sister Mabel once won White Rock’s long-defunct sandcastle competition, Anderson said.
“The historical society had a photo of them,” she said, noting her aunt was later active in that same society, as well as the Anglican church.
“She was fairly well-known throughout the area,” Anderson said.
During the Second World War, Fennel served with the St. John Ambulance Corps.
Fennel called the Weatherby Pavilion home for six years.