CORNER BROOK When Mary Power moved to Corner Brook it was 1933 and her name was Mary Kelly.
The Mount Bernard Avenue area was wooded, and Main Street was lined only with residental houses of well-to-do mill employees.
Walking down Main Street one day, as a 25-year-old, two things caught her eye. The first was a new home going up at number 33.
“I said, some day I’m going to live in that house,” Power laughed.
Secondly, she noticed the handsome man building the house, Mike Power.
“And I wanted to live in that house with that man,” she said.
A year later they were married, moved into that house, where they would go on to raise four children.
To this day, Power lives in the same house — at 103 years old.
While some of her friends are in seniors homes, she said there’s no need to move.
Her mind is sharp, her dress is stylish and her personality is a perfect blend of sweetness and spunk.
She has never had an illness more than the common cold or flu, she said.
And, her mobility was perfect until she fell and broke her hip, when she was 98 years old.
Now she gets around with the use of a walker and spends time listen to Open Line or chatting with the droves of people who drop by to visit each week.
Blessed with good health
Power was born in Gambo in 1909 to Tim and Cecilia (White) Kelly.
Power’s parents and only sibling, sister Madge, died at an early age.
She’s glad to continue living a long life.
“I took care of myself,” she said. “I wasn’t a drinker, and I kept good hours.”
She mostly attributes her graceful aging to her Catholic faith.
Power prays every night and every day for people she knows, and even people she doesn’t.
“I think that’s why I have good health — God gave me good health, but I think it (came) through prayers.”
“Now that I’m old, I got nothing else to do I suppose,” she said with a laugh.
Living life to the fullest
When Power became a widow in her 60s, she continued expanding her life by traveling across Canada and the United States.
She’s been to Las Vegas twice, spent winters in Florida, and been to British Columbia and back.
“I traveled wildly and willingly.”
Throughout the years, she keept her house filled with good people, good meals and good times.
She used to board out empty bedrooms to tourists, which would keep her house full throughout the summer months.
Some of her past visitors think so fondly of her, they returned this past summer to see her 50 years after their initial visit.
Power’s biggest joy in life is being a grandmother and great-grandmother.
When Power first became a grandmother, everyone started calling her “Muffy.”
“I didn’t want to be called ‘nanny’ or ‘granny,’” she said. “So I thought about it and I chose ‘Muffy.’”
She is now known as “Muffy” to a slew of family and friends, who think of her as their own grandmother.
