By Nancy Willis
SOURIS – Gabrielle Fredricks of Toronto is a remarkable woman.
This week, at age 102, she donned a bright orange survival suit, climbed aboard a Huey helicopter with a group of fellow adventure tourists, and headed out to the ice off Prince Edward Island’s north side to see seal pups at the height of the whelping season.
Nothing daunted her, not the hour-long ride in the vibrating, packed helicopter or several hours on the freezing, moon-like barren landscape of the Northumberland Strait ridge ice where the pups are born.
Into that frigid harp seal nursery she descended and made her way slowly and carefully by herself, probing the ice ahead with a long pointed pole, testing for unexpected cracks or fissures.
At first, two tour guides with Natural Habitat Adventures carefully held her arms on either side, but she wanted none of that. The moment with nature in that wild, brilliant landscape was an experience she wanted to savor quietly on her own.
“I said to these wonderful people: ‘Look, I am going by myself, and as you will see I will stay where I can see you and the helicopter always.”‘ When she returned to the tour base in Charlottetown that night, she was tired but thrilled, having accomplished something she had wanted to do for years.
Her decision to see the seals was an easy one. Two weeks ago, an information package arrived in the mail from the Boulder, Colorado, adventure tour company detailing their seal pup tour in maritime Canada. Shortly afterwards she was packing her bags.
“When my friend and housekeeper/companion Joyce asked, ‘Where are you going?’, I said, ‘I am going to see the seals!’ My husband didn’t want me to go, but now he is gone so I go. And the only thing my son Martin said was, ‘Mother, just don’t bring back a seal puppy’.”
Gabrielle Fredricks and her husband Joe fled Hitler and Austria just one day ahead of the Second World War. With their son Martin in tow, they left their home in the Austrian Alps with only a small suitcase.
Their decision to come to Canada proved a good one. Soon after arriving, Joe Fredricks turned his ingenuity to supplying foodstuffs to army canteens. That small venture grew beyond all imagination to become Select Foods, one of Canada’s largest food-processing operations. It has remained in the family, passing from father to son, with Gabrielle’s grandson Paul recently becoming its newest president.
Back in the Natural Habitat Adventures office, one couldn’t help but marvel at Fredricks’ delightful nature and stamina. There, among the hiking boot-clad adventure tour types of all ages, she more than held her own.
With muscle tone and mental and physical capacities of someone 40 years her junior, one question was inevitable: “What’s your secret?”
“Everyone asks that and I truly don’t know the answer,” she said.
She did drop a few interesting hints. She has always been physically active, climbing mountains, skiing and outdoors all the time. She eats little or no redmeat and only a small amount of the lighter varieties available. She and her dog Gus share approximately one chicken per week. She also quit smoking 15 years ago.
One more interesting and important thing rounded out the mix – a long, happy and active romantic physical relationship continued throughout life with one’s spouse.
Halfway through the interview, the petite, fiesty woman took time out for a quick bracer and savored a good rye on the rocks. Periodically, Natural Habitat Tours field director Steve Morello slid in and out of the room, checking diligently on the well-being of his favorite charge.
The next day, Fredricks bid the Maritimes goodbye and flew back to Toronto and her home in Don Mills, where she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring and a return to her garden. There she does all her flower gardening herself, while her companion Joyce takes care of the vegetables.
Although she currently pays someone to cut the grass, she is giving that a second thought.
“Maybe someday I will get an electric mower and do it myself.”
