Eva Anna Fisher (Keay) was born to Bertha and Heber Keay on June 2, 1919, in Edmonton.
Eva was the eldest of eight children. She was raised on the family homestead at a time when hard work and grit meant survival. Everything was made from scratch and included tending large gardens, preserving food, sewing clothes and harvesting with a threshing crew. Although those years must have been hard, Eva made them sound full of fun, mischief, love and music. The parts of her stories she always emphasized were the times she shared with the people she cared about and dearly loved.
John and Eva met in 1937 in High Prairie and were married shortly thereafter in 1938, sharing a magnificent life together for over 50 years. They raised three wonderful children: Lawrence, Louise (Pasutto) and Jackaline (Peyre), eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. John and Eva cherished each other and were always together. Even when John worked away on the railroad, the little family headed to where he was and stayed in a tent to be together. John was always so proud of his beautiful, intelligent, hard-working, feisty and loving wife.
At the age of 65, Eva decided to try out cross country skiing and she took to it like a fish in water. Her skills were so proficient that on the very rare occasion that she did fall, much to her beloved grandchildren’s dismay, their father wouldn’t help her out of the bushes until he could get his camera and take a picture. In one day, Grandma skied 28 miles, setting an incredible goal and legacy for the rest of us to work toward. Despite her speed and skill, she would slow her pace down and patiently teach her grandchildren how to ski. Never setting a limit to the number of times they could ski up and down the same hill.
Grandma loved nature and the outdoors—camping, hunting, fishing, and tending to her flowers and garden. She nourished three generations of us by preserving thousands of pounds of nutritious home-grown food.
As a kid, I can remember being in awe that Grandma could not only roast a chicken, but she could also raise, butcher, and pluck a chicken. And if that bird happened to be a goose, the feathers were then sewn into pillows and quilts.
Grandma’s cooking was legendary. Roasts, beer battered fish, chicken and noodles, homemade pastas, relishes and preserves, biscuits, dumplings, honey cookies, carrot cake and the much-revered glazed blueberry pie. Grandma was so famous for this pie that, when staying with the Fisher family in Mission, the making of the pie was spoken of quietly or the whole neighbourhood popped over to consume it, which, of course, Grandma anticipated and lovingly made extra large pies.
Less than one per cent of the world’s population live to be 100, our Grandma beat that by nearly three years. She was a lady of great character, strength and love. The age old saying, ‘They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to’ couldn’t be truer then when it came to our Grandma. Words that describe Eva … strong, loving, kind, supportive, gracious, smart, resilient, spirited, fun, beautiful, honourable, humble, and kind. Grandma not only embodied these characteristics but lived them every day of her nearly 103 years. Her songs and love will echo always in our hearts.
I Had but 50 Cents – The Punters
I took my girl to a dance one night; it was a social hop,
We waited till the lights went out and the music it did stop…
Then to a restaurant we went, the best one on the street,
She said she wasn’t hungry, but this is what she ate:
A dozen raw, a plate of slaw, a chicken and a roast,
Some apple sauce, asparagus, some soft-shell crab on toast;
A bowl of stew, some crackers too,
Her appetite was immense,
When she asked for pie, I thought I’d die,
For I had but fifty cents!