One of St. Albert's oldest residents met one of its youngest ones on Saturday afternoon, and when the two looked into each other's eyes, they both smiled the same smile. That smile wasn't by coincidence.
One of St. Albert's oldest residents met one of its youngest ones on Saturday afternoon, and when the two looked into each other's eyes, they both smiled the same smile.
That smile wasn't by coincidence. Barbara Krywko, 103, was introduced to her great-great-granddaughter Addison Marie Baxandall who came into the world just a few weeks ago, on Jan. 2. The special occasion held at the great-great-grandmother's Rosedale residence had a lot of familiar faces too, as the family is now represented with five generations of females, all smiling the same smile.
“She's going to get lots of attention,” remarked Jeannette Mensink, representing the middle generation.
The roster of relatives includes Krywko who turned 103 on Sept. 1. She is the youngest girl of her family. Then there's Marie Irene Martineau, the oldest girl in her family. She celebrated her 73rd birthday the day after Addison was born.
Mensink turns 53 on Sept. 11 this year. Like her mother, she's also the oldest girl in her family. Her daughter, Carmen Baxandall turned 28 on Dec. 29, just a few days before her daughter was born. She is also the oldest girl in the family. Of course, little Addison was born at the Sturgeon hospital only three-and-a-half weeks ago.
The significance of having so many birthdays centered around the end of the year and at the end of summer wasn't lost on Mensink.
“It's weird,” she suggested. “I was due for Carmen on Christmas Day and she was due for Addison on Christmas Day.”
Addison weighed in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces, is in good health and sleeps like a baby, as they say. “She's a pretty good sleeper!” Carmen said. “She probably wakes up every three or four hours during the nights. She's awesome.”
The baby girl also seems to have an excellent humour. The tot was enjoying a good rest through most of the weekend's momentous occasion but when she noticed so many people – including dad Adam and grandpa Jerome – taking her picture, she perked her eyes open to see what the fuss was about and to smile for the cameras.
“She opened her eyes!” Barbara announced, and the two girls separated by more than a century of age caught a look at each other, and smiled.
It's not that the extended family is exceptionally skewed toward girls. It's about even with the boys too, Jeannette said, and so Carmen and Adam chose not to learn their baby's sex before Addison was born. She wanted a girl and he wanted a boy. He even had a dream that the baby was a girl but he later “convinced himself” that it was actually a boy. Instead, Carmen wanted Adam to tell her as he handed the baby to her right after delivery.
“It was a total surprise. I said, ‘Hi Addison!'” she said, her voice wavering as she remembered the joyous moment.
As for continuing on with the possibility of another addition to the family, Carmen said that it's too early to think about that.
“We definitely want at least two.”
