When in 1997 Jesuit Father Bert Foliot arrived as pastor at the Toronto parish he found the 86-year-old Ward there “doing everything.” She was the secretary, bookkeeper, accountant, sandwich maker, cook and in charge of the staff, Foliot said. It left Foliot with a lot less to do.
When Our Lady of Lourdes pastoral assistant Maria Paolo started working for the parish 14 years ago, she found she had a lot to learn from the parish’s oldest parishioner.
“I learned from Gail how to persevere,” said Paolo. “Nothing ever seemed to quell her spirit,”
It doesn’t surprise Paolo that Ward has lived to be 100.
“I think part of it is just living such a faith-filled life. Her positive spirit is something everyone could learn from,” she said.
Ward lived 98 years in the same house until, in August 2009, she moved to the Houses of Providence nursing home. She’s been a member of the Catholic Women’s League for more than 60 years. When she started working at the parish, Our Lady of Lourdes was the richest parish in Toronto.
She’s seen the changes in the neighbourhood since Canada’s biggest and densest high-rise neighbourhood, St. James Town, was built across the street from the church. But the parish always remained a lively and hopeful place, said Ward. When the Jesuits took over the parish in the 1970s she found they were the right men for the job.
She remembers meeting Msgr. Fulton Sheen and can relate that he wasn’t as tall as he looked on television — and that he had a sense of humour.
“He was a lot of fun,” she said.
As dozens of well wishers approached Ward to wish her a happy 100th they would ask, “How are you?” Her answer, “Surviving,” and a big laugh.
She attributes her longevity to lots of friends and family.
When she was introduced to Logan MacDonald, a relative almost 100 years her junior, the family debated whether the tyke was her great, great, great grandnephew, or was it four greats?
Her long life included one bizarre and tragic twist in 1956. Her brother, Fr. Dick Ward, was killed along with several nuns by a military plane that crashed into the Grey Nuns’ convent in Orleans, outside Ottawa. The Canadian Navy chaplain had been living with the nuns at the time.
To this day, all the family calls Ward “Honey,” the nickname her brothers gave her as a child.
Friends, family the key to Gail Ward’s 100 years
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterTORONTO - When Gail Ward started answering phones at Our Lady of Lourdes parish the first of Mackenzie King’s three Liberal governments was in its last days, the nation was still mourning nearly 70,000 dead from the First World War, the Scopes monkey trial was just underway in the United States, Pope Pius XI was establishing the Vatican as a sovereign state and the Great Depression was unthinkable.
She was 14 years old in 1925 and enjoying a game of tennis outside the rectory when she was asked to fill in for the missing parish secretary. It was the beginning of a career in parishes that spanned 80 years.
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