Kay Holstein seemed genuinely surprised and pleased by all the attention she was getting late last week.

"I think it's great," she said. The Maple Ridge Seniors Village resident turned 104 on Friday, Feb. 15, and a party was held in her honour at the seniors residence.

Born in 1909 in Humboldt, Sask., five years before the onset of the First World War, Kay is the fourth of five siblings, two brothers and three sisters.

Kay and her sister Betty, six years her junior, are the last surviving members of her immediate family.

"She was the baby in the family," Kay said of Betty.

She said she worked as a waitress in Saskatchewan before moving to B.C. in the 1940s.

"Kay told me once that she was tired of the Prairie winters," said Sue Bolton from Maple Ridge Seniors Village.

Once in B.C. she worked for many years as a live-in housekeeper for an elderly man.

Kay has lived in Maple Ridge since 1994.

She moved to Maple Ridge Seniors Village in 2011.

Kay enjoys keeping her mind active, working on crosswords and brain-teasers, and she likes to read.

"I've never been sick," she said. As for her secret of longevity, she said, "Good living, and living one day at a time."

tlandreville@mrtimes.com