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 Andrushko 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 Andrushko, 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 Andrushko, whose daughter Adele McArdle brings her to the club's meat draw every week. Andrushko gives any meat she wins to McArdle or her son, Steven, as a little thank-you for looking after her in her senior years.
"I feel great," said Andrushko, beaming with her million-dollar smile which was just as big as last year, when she 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 Andrushko 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 Andrushko's needs.
"Can't be better," she says of the care she receives at Creekside.
Andrushko 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 Andrushko's 100th birthday party. He'll play for her 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, Andrushko 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. Andrushko remembers one such day very well.
When asked if there was an age in her life she would go back to if she could, Andrushko said, "to the day I married."
Andrushko was married to her husband, Morris, for 71 years. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 97. Their wedding day was in Winnipeg in August 1946, when Andrushko was in her early 20s.
Of all the special memories Andrushko has of her wedding day, it's the dancing that she looks back on most fondly.
Andrushko was grateful to her sons and daughters who live locally 鈥� Steven Andrushko, Adele McArdle and Martha Cooper 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 Andrushko's honour.
Friends and family organized the birthday party and got a cake for Andrushko 鈥� though it's hard to imagine a cake big enough for the birthday of a woman with so many friends.
