On Saturday, March 11, the day after local author Edith Iglauer turned 100 years old, Edith’s family and friends gathered at the Pender Harbour School of Music in Madeira Park to honour and celebrate the first 100 years of her long and vibrant life. Iglauer arrived on the Sunshine Coast in the 1970s, a journalist from The New Yorker magazine who came to research West Coast commercial fishing. She met, fell in love, and married fisherman John Daly, wrote Fishing With John, and still lives in Garden Bay.
At her 100th birthday party, Edith received congratulations from Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gov-Gen. David Johnston, Premier Christy Clark, and Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons. Simons, on his cello, joined with musicians Ken Dalgleish and Graham Ord and assembled guests in the singing of Edith’s happy birthday song.
There was a champagne toast, afternoon tea with savoury and sweet delicacies prepared by Doug Davis, and lively stories from Edith’s sons, Jay and Richard Hamburger; from relatives Richard Daly and Liz Knowles; and a poem for Edith from her late husband Frank White’s son, Howard White.
Longtime friends Martine Reid, Ian Gill, and Jane McOuat, spoke of Edith’s many community involvements, accomplishments and friendships. In a letter to Edith, Garden Bay post office workers told the story of their 41-year postal relationship with Edith. All afternoon, Edith sat surrounded by loving family – her nieces Anne Aubourg and Betsy Fallon from Ohio, and daughters-in-law Melissa from New York City and Atty from Vancouver, as well as many members from the late Frank White’s family. Congratulations Edith!
