Jenny_Milligan

Jeff Green | Mar 31, 2005

Feature article March 31 2005

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by Jeff Green

Jenny Milligan is from a large family, (the Veleys) and she has had no lack of relatives around throughout her long life. They came out in force on Good Friday to help her celebrate her one hundredth birthday.

Much has changed since Jenny Veley was born at Oconto in 1905, and later attended school on St. Georges Lake. After leaving for Kingston for a time, she returned in 1956. She cared for her parents and then her husband, Jake Milligan, until his death in 1964, and lived on her own for over 30 years in a small, wood-heated cabin on Ducharme Road, until moving into the Seniors Home about 8 years ago.

Although she has difficulty walking (it was a fractured hip that made her move to the Seniors home), and her vision is impaired, Jenny greeted family members as they arrived for her party last week, smiling at their children and sharing a memory or two.

Greetings came in from the Queen, the Federal and Provincial governments, and Central Frontenac Deputy Mayor Faye Putnam presented a commemorative plaque from the township.

Fortunately for Jenny, family surrounds her all the time, as some of the staff at the Seniors home are her nieces. Her brother-in-law lives at the home as well.

She also visits with Joe Vinkle, whom she has known for many, many years. The 99-year-old Vinkle was delivered by Jenny Milligans mother, who was working as a midwife in the winter of 1906.

After greeting a seemingly endless stream of younger relatives at her birthday party, it was time for Jenny to cut the cake. She stepped forward and robustly carved a slice for herself. Always one to have her cake and eat it too, she began eating cake and drinking tea even before taking time to blow out the candles on the cake.