Despite her humble claims, Stanhope’s Ruth MacBrien has lived anything but an ordinary life.
Celebrating her 100th birthday Jan. 31, the soon-to-be centurion sat down with The Highlander to unpack a life that started in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1926 and saw her manoeuvre cities like Niagara Falls and Toronto before settling in paradise – otherwise known as Haliburton County – in 1950.
It was love that brought her north – she met her husband, Bob MacBrien, in the mid-1940s. Ruth was friends with his sister, with the pair attending the same church in Toronto together. Growing up in Stanhope, Bob went to a technical school in the city because there was no high school in the County. It was there he met Ruth.
Most will know the MacBriens for their 33 years of running Bob’s Radio and Television – later Bob’s Television and Hardware – in Minden. Bob constructed the building at 92 Bobcaygeon Rd. himself. Today, it’s home to Riverview Furniture.
The couple made their home off Hwy. 35 in Stanhope township. They had five children – Paul, Catherine, James, John and Lois. They were married for more than 66 years, with Bob passing in 2016 aged 90.
“Originally, I came here as a bride and my husband was going to work with his parents at the resort they owned, but there wasn’t enough business at the time. Bob went back to Toronto for Bible college and did some missionary work… then we started Bob’s Radio and TV in 1955,” Ruth said.
She served as the business’ bookkeeper – a role she also fulfilled, for a short time, at Carnarvon Lumber.
Ruth’s ties to the community run deep – she is a founding member of Minden Bible Church, which is hosting Saturday’s centennial celebration; helped launch the Kinmount Marketplace, where she’s known for her tatting exploits; has been a helper with the Kinmount Fair almost 30 years; was a longtime member of the Minden and District Horticultural Society; and remains an active member of the Haliburton Highlands Quilt Guild.
Her exploits are many – she accompanied Bob on a mission trip to Haiti in the 1970s and claims to be the second white woman ever to climb Mount Bois-Pin, the fourth highest mountain on the Caribbean island at 7,333 feet above sea level.
“I was in my 50s at the time and they looked at me with my grey hair and said, ‘I don’t think you can climb that’, but I did it,” Ruth said. While there, she picked stones for cement while her husband helped build a water well for a rural community.
The experience in Haiti changed her outlook on life – despite the people there having so little, Ruth said they seemed so happy.
“They had nothing materialistically, but they experienced joy that was expressed daily through smiles, laughter and teamwork to accomplish their goals,” she said. “Here in North America, we have so much material wealth, but our society as a whole is so unhappy. What a contrast between cultures and outlook on life.”
Ruth complete her high school education in 2003, aged 77. That year, she was named the Haliburton Adult and Alternate Education Centre’s citizen of the year.
While she’s made many memories in the years since, a standout was completing the Stanhope Triathlon in 2003, aged 77.
Asked about other highlights of her life, Ruth brings up a letter she received from Queen Elizabeth II in 2021.
“I sent her a picture of my dad, who had an incredible likeness to King George VI – her father and the monarch at the time,” Ruth said. “I told her about the time he went out to Montreal for work. The people out there thought my dad was the king incognito. He said people were saluting him and he had no idea what for. It was nice that she wrote back.”
As the fourth member of her family to reach 100, Ruth said the secret to living a long, happy and healthy life, “is loving God and then eating properly and behaving myself – no alcohol, no cigarettes, nothing like that.”
Saturday’s celebration runs 1 to 4 p.m., with a cake cutting at 2 p.m. All are welcome to join the festivities.
