Henrietta Irwin

BIOGRAPHY

Henrietta Irwin was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, on 27 May 1906, the eldest of four children. She survived typhoid fever when she was 11 years old.

At the age of 17, while in Belfast, she met Norman Lindsay Irwin, who was training to become an architect. He later moved to Toronto, Canada, and from 1929 began writing letters to Henrietta. However, shortly before she was due to leave for Canada to join him, her father passed away. As a result, she had to remain in Ireland to help her mother care for her two younger brothers. He waited for her for a year and a half until she was finally able to join him in Canada, and they were married in 1939 at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. Together, they built their first home in the Kingsway.

She was spending her days gardening and working around the house. For most of her life, she taught piano lessons from her living room, starting out charging just 50 cents for a 30-minute lesson. She taught on a Steinway grand piano. She also led an active life, enjoying tennis, golf, and curling well into her later years.

In the 1990s, her husband moved into a nursing home, where he lived for over seven years until his passing in 2002. Every day, she visited him, returning to her home in time for dinner. One day, after returning home from her daily visit, she received a phone call — he had passed away shortly after she left. She was 96 at the time; he was 98.

Irwin said she had no idea how she had lived as long as she did, but credited her strong faith in God. That faith began with her mother, during the years when her father — a marine engineer — spent long stretches at sea. Never knowing for certain if he would return safely, she and her mother would pray together for his safe return — and he always did.

Irwin passed away in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 15 January 2019, at the age of 112 years, 233 days.

RECOGNITION

At the time of her passing, she was the second-oldest living person in Canada, after Ellen Gibb.

Irwin’s age was verified by Andrew Holmes and David Irwin, and was validated by the European Supercentenarian Organisation on 5 September 2020.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Milton centenarian recalls many happy times over her long life” – Inside Halton, 9 June 2014

GALLERY

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