Surrounded by family, Marium Frayne Dalton couldn’t stop smiling as she prepared to become a centenarian, celebrating her 100th birthday on Canada Day, July 1, at her home at the Victorian at McKenzie.
“I’ve had a really lovely life,” said the happy 100 year old.
Frayne Dalton was born in 1915, the middle child among 12 siblings, in the French community of Lac du Bonnett, Manitoba.
She grew up there, put herself through nursing school and then became a public health nurse working throughout remote areas of Manitoba with First Nations communities.
She often worked alone and delivered many babies by herself. She calculates that she delivered more than 50 infants, a number of whom were given her name, Marium.
She loved her work as it gave her the opportunity to do different things in life and allowed her to make a positive difference for her patients.
Frayne Dalton married twice, first to Lawrence Frayne and then after he passed away in 1986, to Lawrence Dalton. She finds it amusing that she married two men named Lawrence.
She has three children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
She moved to Victoria in 2007, fleeing Winnipeg winters and joining sons who already lived here.