There is a new centenarian in our community.
Honouring a life that began in the midst of the First World War and the start of Prohibition, long-time Barrhead resident Norman Bakker celebrated his 100th birthday at the Senior’s Drop-In Centre on Saturday, July 2.
Surrounded by immediate and extended family members, Bakker smiled as Happy Birthday was sung to him and made quiet jokes with his brother John, who is aged 98 and a half himself, while letters of congratulations from Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Rachel Notley, Conservative MP Arnold Viersen, MLA Glenn van Dijken, and others were read aloud.
Numerous family members including his niece Agnes Pieracci, nephew Cliff Kroening, grandson Neil McKellar and stepdaughter Doreen Battenfelder, chimed in with the sentiments expressed in those letters and shared their own fondest memories of Bakker, and the Senior’s Drop-In Centre rang with their laughter as both Bakker’s son, Wayne, and grandson Lachlan, presented them all with a multitude of heart-warming anecdotes.
Among the interesting world-changing events that occurred in 1916 — women earned the right to vote, Albert Einstein established his theory of relativity, and the Parliament building in Ottawa burned down, Wayne Bakker said his father was born in the Netherlands, in Bovenkarspel, on July 7, 1916.
“I vividly remember so many years of your life was in farming and it was tough,” John Bakker told his brother, adding he always admired Norman’s work ethic, uncompromising sense of honesty and responsibility as well.
“Your long life has given meaning to mine, and to so many others,” he added.
Pieracci said it was an honour for her family to be included, adding Bakker’s 100th birthday was a huge milestone that not many people achieve.
“I can remember going out to Alcomdale to visit you when you were much younger, much more hairier, and it was just so wonderful to be together as family,” she said.
Bakker immigrated to Canada in October 1939, traveling from New York to Montreal, and then to Edmonton, in an effort to join his brother who had arrived ahead of him.
The Bakker family, formerly bulb growers in Holland, took up dairy farming in Stony Plain and quickly became the largest milk producers in the Edmonton area to ship to the Woodland Dairy.
According to family members, Bakker and his first wife, Emma Kroening, were married on Dec. 21, 1946.
Of the date, his son Wayne joked that it had been chosen to ensure a good chance of sleeping in.
“One of my first memories stems from their time in Stony Plain,” nephew Cliff Kroening said, adding one of the things that always impressed him was that Bakker never stopped getting an education.
“You have been learning all of your life and I cannot think of a better person who has a better grasp of all the things going on in the world — science, history, current events. You know if Google ever breaks down and Wikipedia crashes, I still hope we have you because you have really impressed me as a man who never stopped learning,” he added.
In 1962 the Bakker family moved from Alcomdate to Freedom and during that time Bakker was an active member of the board of the Barrhead District Seed Cleaning Plant.
He was involved with the Vega-Neerlandia-Mellowdale Rural Electrification Association, first as a board member in 1970, as the association’s president in 1977, and later, in 1980, as its secretary.
He was also a board member of the Barrhead Co-op until 1981 and finally retired from the Rural Electrification Association in 1992.
“On the 60th anniversary of my grandfather leaving Europe, he took us back and we had a visit there,” grandson Lachlan Bakker said.
“One of the highlights for me was in Brussels where we ran into some Greek tourists. He told them when we run into something that we don’t understand we say ‘That’s Greek to me.’ I’m not sure there is not a person he has met that he cannot talk to.”
In 1985, his wife passed away and two years later, in 1987, he married Lena Busch, a widow, and they settled in Barrhead where they lived together until her death in 1991.
Battenfelder said Bakker and her mother had a lot of similarities in that they enjoyed going to church, they loved singing, gardening and debates.
In 2008, Bakker moved to Hilcrest.
In keeping with the spirit of Prohibition at the time of Bakker’s birth, de-alcoholized beverages were provided for toasting purposes.
