Beacher Gwen Carroll set to celebrate her 100th birthday this week

Beach resident Gwen Carroll will celebrate her 100th birthday with a party this week.

Born Gwendolyn Louise Lammerse at St. Joseph’s Hospital on Dec. 23, 1925, she has lived in East Toronto since she was a young child.

Her father was Dutch and her mother English. Carroll and her family lived on Morse Street and then on Woodmount Avenue.

She attended Eastern Commerce High School and said she was a “very good student, with good marks and only sent to the VP’s (vice principal’s) office just once or twice.”

After high school, Gwen worked at the Bank of Commerce, later merging with the Imperial Bank to become CIBC.

She met her husband Emerson Roy Louis Carroll at a party in Toronto. He proposed to her on the Danforth streetcar (when there was a Danforth streetcar).

They were married on May 3, 1945. Em was on leave from his service in the Second World War as a wireless operator and gunner with the Royal Canadian Air Force at the time of the wedding.

They had a two-week honeymoon in Haliburton, and then Em returned to Europe to finish his military service.

Gwen and her husband first lived on Pape Avenue, then they moved to Norway Avenue in the Beach and later to Kenilworth Avenue.

While raising her children Grant, Wendy and Paula, Gwen also worked part time at the Simpson’s store at Mutual and Gould streets in Toronto.

“Gwen was never a stranger to hard work, having been raised during the Depression,” said her daughter Paula in a note to Beach Metro Community News in advance of her mother’s 100th birthday celebrations set for Tuesday, Dec. 23, with family members in Whitby.

“That unmatched inner strength and determination has allowed her to stay healthy, happy and cognizant.”

Em died in 1996, but Gwen has continued to live an active and happy life with her daughter Paula and son-in-law Chris in the Beach. Along with her three children, she has three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Gwen said one of her tips for living a long life is maple syrup, which she has on oatmeal and with other meals on a daily basis.

“If you ask Gwen, and I hope you will, what her secret is, she will tell you good old Canadian maple syrup. Gwen insists that she has it in all her beverages wherever we are,” wrote Paula and Chris.

“And this has been going on for years. Tea in the morning, syrup…oatmeal for breakfast, syrup. If it has worked this long, who is going to argue with her.”

Among her regular annual activities is attending the Canadian National Exhibition, which she has never missed since first attending as a child. Going to The Ex with family members is one of her traditions which Gwen enjoys greatly.