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News Advertiser
January 27, 2021
www.NewsAdvertiser.com
John Garred is Vegreville’s new Centenarian Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent John Garred was born in Edmonton on January 21, 1921, to William and Amelia Garred of Andrew, Alberta where he lived on the family farm 12 miles northwest of Andrew (very close
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to the Pakan Crossing) with his parents and older brother Laverne. John was schooled at Pakan School. “When I was young, I lived by the river and I remember having to cross the river every day to go to school. Then on the weekends, a whole bunch of us kids used to go up on top of a hill and sled all the way back down. I had a lot of friends growing up. I enjoyed school because I liked to learn. After he finished school he worked on the family farm. He knew his future wife, Jeannie Hrehorets, all his life as she was one of their neighbours. He said when they got a bit older they got together and started dating because he liked her and found her to be really pretty and nice. At age 21, he married Jeannie and together they raised nine children where they farmed the home place until 1975 when they purchased a house in Vegreville. “My marriage to Jeannie was good; we stayed together for 45 years. The advice I would give young people who plan to get married is to make the right choice and try to find someone who agrees with you on a lot of things. I chose a good person. Jeannie was a really good cook too.” John said. “I also found parenthood to be a lot of fun. I played ball a lot with my kids.” John admitted years ago, people experienced many hard times. “You had to work for every penny you got and you had to save what you could. People didn’t have money like they do nowadays. But this didn’t bother me, we lived with the times and things got better.” John was the last man to operate the
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Pakan ferry. When he sold the farm and moved to Vegreville, he worked for Ray and Don Motors fixing and driving small and large farm machinery. His wife, Jeannie worked at different cafes. John still resides at his own house in Vegreville. He puts in a large garden and volunteers at the Senior Citizen Sunshine Club of Vegreville. He was so proud when he got his driver’s license renewed at 99 years of age. John said his longevity is due to floor curling and that exercise was the key to him living to be 100-years-old. John has seven living children-Amelia (Lawrence) Tychkowsky, Allen (Rita) Garred, Laura (Jim) Zabrick, Susan (John) Kastelen, Joanne (Eugene) Perepeletza, Karen (Blair) Hallett, and Audrey Johnson, 22 grandchildren, 21 greatgrandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. He lost his son Gary in December of 2020, one daughter Colleen, and one grandson Ron Perepeletza. His wife Jeannie passed away in 1987. After that, he was remarried to Mary Cedor whom he said was a good wife and he enjoyed traveling many places with her. They were married for 23 years before Mary passed away seven years ago. John’s advice for young people is to not say they don’t like this or that; give everything a chance and make sure to work and keep busy and active. John said he is especially grateful for his granddaughter Amber who looks after him. “Amber has been really helping me out for a year now. She is my chief cook and bottle washer. She really looks out for me. I have to tell her every place I am going.” Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, John’s family celebrated his 100th birthday with an outdoor birthday party this past September.
