COBDEN — Johanna van Kessel was quite surprised, but honoured, when she received the Canada 150 Medallion.
She was presented with the medal by the Cobden Legion Branch 550.
“I’m so surprised,” she said. “I’m overwhelmed. I don’t deserve it. There are others who need it more than I do.”
She will wear the pin whenever she wears her Legion uniform.
“It’s beautiful,” Ms. van Kessel said, as she held the pin up.
She also received her 45-year service pin from the Legion.
The 97-year-old Cobden woman isn’t sure why she received it, but noted she remains active even at her age. She walks each day to the grocery store and post office, and into the bank when necessary, which is about one kilometre round trip.
Ms. van Kessel also attends Mass each Thursday morning and once a month participates in a mass at Caressant Care Nursing and Seniors Home.
When Legion members are ill, or anyone else she knows in the community, she visits, calls or sends flowers.
Ms. van Kessel said she recently had a full physical done at her doctor’s office, and “the very young doctor” told her he couldn’t believe how healthy she is at her age. In July, she turns 98.
“I’m on the go most of the day,” she said.
While on her daily walk along Main Street, Ms. van Kessel said she always stops to talk to people, and if she sees a mom and baby, there’s no chance that mother is getting away without her getting a peek at the wee one.
“I like flowers, old people and babies,” she said with a laugh.
Ms. van Kessel still lives in her own in an apartment and wants to “stay here until the Lord calls me.”
She moved to Pembroke from Holland with her husband Tony in 1946 and settled in Pembroke where they operated a general store. In 1970, they moved to Cobden. Tony died in 1991.
Ms. van Kessel is mom to Johanna, Hans, Tony, Nick, Andre and Carla, grandmother to 25, great-grandmother to 10 and great-great-grandmother to three and one on the way.
