Teenaz Javat
TheStar.com

When Martha Rogers left England in 1912, she and her parents were one ship shy of a historic disaster.

Yesterday she celebrated her 108th birthday at Kennedy Lodge Nursing Home in Toronto while friends and family recalled an extraordinarily long life.

Born in London, England, Rogers was 13 when she came to Canada with her parents aboard the Corsica. It was the very next vessel to leave Southampton after the ill-fated Titanic was sunk by an iceberg off Newfoundland.

Her parents settled in St. Thomas, Ont. She married William Rogers in 1920 and the two honeymooned in Niagara Falls. They settled in Toronto’s west end and raised two children, Bill Rogers and Jo Grimshaw.

Now, her family has grown to five grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. Last summer, the five generations of Rogers gathered in Toronto for a reunion.

At 108, the matriarch is well behind the oldest person in the world, 114-year-old Edna Scott Parker, a retired Indiana schoolteacher.

She was wed for 60 years to William Rogers, a World War I veteran who survived Vimy Ridge and died in 1980. His pension of $1,700 a month, sent by Veteran Affairs, pays for her nursing home costs.

Grimshaw described her mother as a deeply religious person.

“She still reads the Bible every day. She was a homemaker all her life and dedicated herself to her family and the church,” she said.

Grimshaw and her brother were Baptist missionaries who spent many years serving in Africa.

Also in attendance yesterday were Ruth and Al Leigh, two friends who visit her every week. “Martha is a very precious person,” said Ruth.

“Her life is steeped in the Bible and at 108 she is very aware of her friends and prays for them.

“Every week that her children were away, Martha sent them a letter. That was a lot of letter writing that went on for 40 years.

“She also is a voracious reader. (Since) coming to the nursing home five years ago she must have read close to 300 books.”

While Rogers is hard of hearing, she is blessed with good eyesight.

Yesterday, the nursing home was decorated in yellow and pink and a gospel singer performed.

When Rogers was wheeled into the dining room, she asked for “the man” – meaning the man with the camera. She recalled from past birthdays that it was mostly males who came from the newspaper to take her picture.

Then she posed and smiled.

So it’s 108 and still counting.

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