There's no question Vernon's Olga Andrushko has made a lot of friends over the years, and between her charming personality and incredible longevity, it's easy to see why.
Celebrating her 101st birthday at the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans Club in Vernon Saturday, Feb. 22, even Olga was surprised at just how many people consider her a dear friend.
"Holy moly," was all she could say when she found out that more than 200 people were attending her birthday party.
The Veterans Club was packed with people celebrating Olga, while also taking part in the club's meat draw, which takes place every Saturday.
It was the perfect setting for a birthday party for Olga, whose daughter Adele McArdle brings her to the club's meat draw every week. Olga gives any meat she wins to Adele or her son, Steven, as a little thank-you for looking after her in her senior years.
"I feel great," said Olga, beaming with her million-dollar smile which was just as big as last year, when she celebrated her centennial year at that same Veterans Club.
"I have no problems whatsoever," she said, adding one of her favourite phrases: "Everything is hunky-dory."
That's saying something because just a couple of years ago, she was hospitalized with a blood clot that came with a scary prognosis: a doctor told her family it would be a miracle if Olga were to live more than three months longer.
Well, she's blown past that prognosis and is living her best life at Creekside Landing retirement home, where the staff help her keep active with regular exercise. Dr. Lindsay Kwantis has also been very attentive to Olga's needs.
"Can't be better," she says of the care she receives at Creekside.
Olga is of Ukrainian descent (at her birthday party she wore blue and yellow flowers in her corsage), and she still makes pierogies, though she says she used to make them a lot more often.
Vic Ukrainz, a Ukrainian fiddler, played music at Olga's 100th birthday party (and again on her 101st birthday on Monday).
When she's not helping to make pierogies, at Creekside she enjoys playing Bingo and other games, singing, listening to music, baking, painting and helping other residents.
Happiness and gratitude are her keys to longevity, Olga said when asked what's kept her going for so many years.
Some days are filled with so much happiness they fuel a lifetime of gratitude. Olga remembers one such day very well.
When asked if there was an age in her life she would go back to if she could, Olga said, "to the day I married."
Olga was married to her husband, Morris, for 71 years. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 97. Their wedding was in Winnipeg in August 1946, when Olga was in her early 20s.
Of all the special memories Olga has of her wedding day, it's the dancing that she looks back on most fondly.
Olga was grateful to all her sons, daughters and their spouses who live locally 鈥� son Steven Andrushko and his wife Luba (as well as their son, Elias), daughter Adele McArdle and her husband, Dan, and daughter Martha Cooper along with her husband, Doug (from Qualicum Beach but in Vernon every month)鈥� for all their care and attentiveness to her over the years.
She was also grateful to Terry Lynn, one of her closest friends, who has helped her immensely, and who along with her son James performed a rap song in Olga's honour.
Friends and family organized the birthday party and got a cake for Olga 鈥� though it's hard to imagine a cake big enough for the birthday of a woman with so many friends.
