In the key of life: Kitty Power still tickles the ivories at 100
St. John's woman looks back on a remarkable life
Catherine (Kitty) Power is turning 100 Friday, but the St. John's centenarian is still going strong.
"You live life as cleanly and as healthily as you can. That's how you succeed in living the long life that I'm living," Power said.
Born in Fortune Harbour, Notre Dame Bay, in 1918 she describes herself as a "peace baby. That's what they called children who were born after the end of the war, or towards the end of the war."
Power moved to St. John's when she was one year old, to be raised by an aunt who didn't have any children of her own.
"I was lucky enough to have parents who put me through music in the school and that was a big thing. I learned to play early and that was part of my life."
She still enjoys playing the piano — and that's just one of her accomplishments.
After graduating from college in 1940, Power went on to have a career as a librarian and is an expert on N.L. collections, working with the province's first premier, Joey Smallwood, to catalog his personal library.
All that while raising seven children.
Power said she and her husband enjoyed exploring the province.
"He loved to drive and every excursion meant a little further ahead so we really traversed the whole of Newfoundland," she said.
"Perhaps other people would have thought we were cracked because we were going off with a crowd of children and sleeping in a tent sometimes, but we enjoyed it because it was keeping the family together."
Her extended family has grown to 17 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren who will help celebrate her milestone birthday on June 29.
"I can't believe I'm turning 100," she said. "It's impossible."
With files from Gary Quigley