Local woman reaches 100 years, and counting

By GILLIAN SLADE on August 23, 2019.

NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE
Queen for a day. Daisy Behiel celebrates her 100th birthday on Thursday and shares her secret for a long and happy life.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade

Daisy Behiel was born on a farm near Dafoe, Sask., just nine months after the end of the First World War

She celebrated her 100th birthday on Thursday, Aug. 22.

She thinks back to her childhood and there is one word that comes to mind:

“Work,” she said.

“Inside and outside, upstairs and downstairs,” said Behiel with a little laugh.

She was one of five children, remembers the horses on the farm but she says it was probably milking the cows that she enjoyed the most.

Dafoe is considered a village within a rural municipality of Big Quill. The 2016 census records there were 15 residents.

Schooling took place in a one-room school that Behiel calls “perfect.” She thinks the name of the school was “Mimer,” and it meant a walk of about three miles each way.

Joe Behiel lived about 14 miles away but came to the farm one day. They married in 1939 when the bride was 20. The ceremony was in a Catholic church and there was a party at the farm afterward.

The married couple set up home in Joe’s parents’ garage at their home in Watson.

Mention “romance” and Behiel almost scoffs – there was just too much work to do. They had 10 children and raised them in that home.

It was only after the first child married that they decided to make a move and arrived in Medicine Hat in 1969. They lived at 1138 Steel St.

“Oh I love Medicine Hat,” said Behiel. “It was a nice little town.”

She had a big garden and canned the produce so there was food for the family all winter. She also sewed the children’s clothes and was kept busy knitting and darning.

There was all the washing that needed drying on the line outside, even in winter. One of her daughter’s, Donna Quinn, says the frozen laundry simply came back inside to dry and that created a comfortably humid atmosphere.

After all the work, from childhood, as a mother and wife she says the secret to a long life is: “Keeping your nose clean.”

The celebration party for her birthday was also about a having a happy time with her loving family around her, she said.