by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHITEWTER REGION (Cobden) — “It’s just another day,” said Amy Pollock.
Her sister Irene Stephens didn’t say too much.
But to family and friends gathered in the community room at Caressant Care Nursing Home Tuesday afternoon, July 25, it was a special day.
The two women were celebrating their 100th birthday. It’s believed Amy and Irene are Ontario’s oldest set of twins; possibly the oldest in all of Canada as well.
Family travelled from as far away as China and Australia to attend this special event.
Amy and Irene Wallace were unexpectedly born in their Queens Line home. While their mom and dad, Albert and Pearl Wallace, were expecting a child, they never dreamed it would be twins. They weighed less than a combined five pounds.
Sister-in-law Sheila Wallace, who became good friends to the sisters through their brother Jimmy, whom she later married, recalled a story from their birth she had heard. A practical nurse would come each day to the house to help care for the babies. The parents couldn’t figure out why the babies didn’t cry much. They found out the nurse was sedating them.
They were kept warm by laying in a basket on the oven door.
They were the second of six children born. Their brother George was born in 1916, then they were born followed by Ernie in 1919, Edna in 1922 and Jim in 1925. They are the only living siblings left in this family.
They both attended SS #4 followed by high school in Renfrew, where they boarded with another family. Following high school it was off to nursing school for both.
Irene moved to British Columbia where she remained in the nursing field, met and married Robert Stephens. She was also a lieutenant in the Canadian Armed Forces. Their children were Carleen, Doug, Susan and Brent. She has three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Her husband died in 1991. In 1993, she moved back to Ontario where her five siblings and their spouses lived. She lived near her brother George in Cobden. She is now a resident at Caressant Care Nursing Home in Cobden.
Amy studied to be a children’s nurse and in August 1942 married farmer Harry Pollock at Queens Line United Church. They moved to Quebec and then to Eastern Ontario. They had four children, Jean, Ian, Wayne and Joy. There are eight grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and another on the way. She was involved as a leader in 4H in Stormont County, a member of the women’s institute and an organist in her church. She was very much a farm wife. She gardened until she was in her 90s.
They both lived through many wars and the great depression.
They both reside in nursing homes as they have early stage dementia.
Irene moved into the Caressant Care Retirement Home in October 2010 and in the spring of 2015 moved to the nursing home side.
Amy lived on her own until she was 97 years old, when she moved into a nursing home in Cornwall.
Irene drove until she was 95 years old, recalled one of her children. She gave up her licence when she turned 96 because she didn’t think she would pass the new driver’s test.
But their family’s history on the Queens Line goes back to 1854/55 when their family moved from Ireland to the Queens Line. In 1922, the home was moved from the middle of the farm to its current location at almost the front of the farm. They used rollers to move the house, an event that took several days.
Family say their mother Pearl Wallace lived until she was just six months shy of her 90th birthday and their great-great-grandmother Isabella Arnett moved to California when she was in her 90s.
Looking back at Amy and Irene’s life, their children do agree on one thing … hard work never killed them … something the two women believed in.
When Amy was asked if there were special events she recalled, she never hesitated when she answered, the day I married.
Although Amy thinks Tuesday, July 25 was just another day, the photos being taken, the memorabilia set up on tables, and the balloons and flowers, demonstrated that it wasn’t just another day for the family. It was a day to celebrate the life of two special women … who didn’t even realize they were special.
