Canadian Railroads > Thelma Nelson celebrates her 107th Birthday.

Thelma Nelson celebrated her 107th birthday yesterday in Revelstoke BC. She worked for many years as a crew clerk in the CPR roundhouse along side the late Darlene Mc Ewen. They were some of the first female crew clerks hired by the CP.

Thelma is a quiet and cultured lady, and claims part of the reason for her longevity is handling life as it comes and never gets too upset.

She was born in Belfast, Ireland, the daughter of a boilermaker for the ship builders Harland and Wolff. Her father must have worked on the "Titanic" boilers. He later got a job as a boilermaker for the CPR at Angus shops in Montreal. She describes the immigrant experience of arriving in Montreal off a ship from Ireland, and gradually moving north along St.Lawrence Avenue from tenement to apartment as the family got settled and prospered.

Her dad got a job in Vancouver tending the boiler in the original CPR Vancouver station/hotel. As a teenage girl, she loved the Vancouver life of the 1920's and 30's. She caused a social uproar when she learned to swim under the direction of boxer/nightclub owner Joe Forte, an African American. He was an all round athlete and a skilled teacher. Despite what the "social pages" of the newspapers said at the time, he was a perfect gentleman. Her dad was a tough Belfast shipbuilder and challenged the gossips of the day to say anything to his face.

He later got transferred to tend the boilerhouse at Revelstoke. After the exciting social life of Vancouver, Thelma was unhappy to move to a tiny mountain community. They arrived just before Christmas. She told her parents that as soon as she could she was moving back to Vancouver. They encouraged her to join the rest of the family at a large Christmas street dance. She met her future husband Nels, a prize winning ski jumper at the dance, and eighty years on she is still living in the community she vowed to leave as soon as she was 18. When her husband died in the 1960's, she went to work for the railway.

She has children and grandchildren and many friends in the community.

Congratulations, Thelma



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/12 14:26 by eminence_grise.

what a nice story, and an interesting life.

thanks for sharing it. the lady touched a lot of history in 107 years.

So, if she happens to live til' she's 113 or more, would that make her a teenager again? ;-)


Congratulations Thelma and God bless!


Brian H.

Must be that clean mountain air. Great story.

Thelma is three years from being a "supercentenarian," defined as someone who reaches 110 years of age. According to Wikipedia, only about 1 in 1000 centenarians (people who reach the age of 100) will become supercentenarians. There are calculated to be about 350–400 supercentenarians in the world currently, about 90 of of whom are known and verified. May Telma continue to live and propser.