McCreary resident celebrates 100th birthday

Submitted Neepawa Banner & Press

Family and friends gathered at the Alpine Manor in McCreary on Apr. 8, to celebrate the birthday of Eva Fedak, who turned 100 years old on Apr. 5 2023. Eva and her husband Bill were married in 1951, and farmed just south west of the town for over 60 years. The farm is still owned and operated by their children and grandchildren. In 2018, Eva moved into the Alpine Manor where she resides today.

Eva left home when she was 15 years of age and went to work helping nearby family members and then later moved to Winnipeg. She worked at Canada Packers and in a sewing factory and then left to do housekeeping and child care for some of the most prestigious families in Winnipeg. Her favourite stories are of her time with the Brown Family, who owned and operated the Brown & Rutherford lumber mill and furniture company, established in 1872. In between working, she returned home to help her parents, John and Irene Puhach on the family farm in the Glenhope district east of McCreary.

After he returned from military service in WWII, she married William (Bill) Fedak, and they moved to the SE 17-20-15 where they operated a mixed farm and raised their 3 children. Mountain Eve School was located in their backyard and many of the students would stop by at various times. For years they milked cows and shipped cream to the local creamery in Neepawa. Eva raised poultry of different kinds and sold processed chickens and eggs to many people in and around McCreary. Eva was a member of the Ladies Legion Auxiliary and always could be counted on to provide her cabbage rolls and perogies or her top notch pies for catered events. Her pies often won prizes at the Kelwood Fair.

Eva has always loved gardening and her flowerbeds on the farm were filled with various plants and color in the summer. There is still a clump of

Giant Peonies that came back with her from Winnipeg that blooms at the farm each year. Even now at her home at the Alpine Manor, she has a raised garden bed on her patio where she grows a few vegetables and tends to a select group of indoor plants. Eva is also a very accomplished seamstress and made clothes for the family and others over the years. She also produced two stunning parkas based on the MacPhee patterns; also award winners at the Kelwood Fair.

She is blessed with good health and an active mind from doing cross word puzzles in her favourite publication, The Seniors Paper, and enjoys reminiscing about days gone by as she flips through some of the local area history books in her possession. She still has an active interest in the political landscape in the Province and Canada and enjoys watching curling on TV.

In 2021, Eva became a great-grandmother for the first time and has enjoyed visits with her great grandson. With his birth, there are now 4 generations of the Fedak family. Summer 2023 will bring the birth of her second greatgrandchild so she will have more celebrating to do!

Happy 100th and a few more!!