‘She’s always been feisty’

East Kildonan

East St. Paul

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/02/2023 (1153 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Raise a glass to 100 years well lived, and many more to come.

On Feb. 22, family and friends gathered at Concordia Village to do just that in celebration of Lillian Schreyer’s 100th birthday.

“It’s exciting,” Schreyer said before enjoying a piece of birthday cake.

Born in Green Bay, Man., during a snowstorm on Feb. 22, 1923, Schreyer, whose maiden name was Rattai, was the oldest of four children. Her parents were German immigrants by way of Russia. She was sent to live with her grandparents in Grand Marais, Man., at the age of six to be closer to a school, as the walk to the school in Green Bay was two miles each way.

“She only knew German when she got to Grand Marais,” said son Barry Schreyer, a former Ward 3 councillor for East St. Paul. “But little kids, in particular, pick things up so quickly. She was shy, at first, but I’ve been told that when she started speaking English, she didn’t quit.”

She spent the next years attending school in Grand Marais before her next-youngest brother was old enough to attend school in Green Bay, at which point she spent the next four years at home, in order to walk her younger brother the two miles to and from school each day. At age 14, she left school to work as a clerk in her grandfather’s general store in Grand Marais.

“Nobody ever asked me what I wanted to do,” was what she often said to family when asked about her younger days.

The lessons Schreyer learned at her grandfather’s business would prove beneficial after she met Tony Schreyer in 1950 and married him a year later. Together, the couple ran a successful construction business, which allowed them to raise their three children — Barry, Jeannette, and Audrey — in and around northeast Winnipeg while also travelling the world.

“My dad had vision and hard work and all the rest, but my mom was the one who did the books and kept everything in check,” Barry Schreyer said. “It took the two of them to be as successful as they were. From where they came from, both growing up on farms with nothing, basically, to do what they did was really something.”

Between working the general store in Grand Marais and marrying Tony (brother of former Manitoba premier Ed Schreyer, who attended Lillian’s centennial birthday party), Schreyer moved to Vancouver to help the war effort during the Second World War. After that, she returned to Manitoba to work on the S. S. Kenora, a steamship that travelled up and down Lake Winnipeg during the summer months.

“For a woman of that age, at that time, to be that adventurous was not the norm,” Barry Schreyer said. “She took chances and did a lot of things that women at that time either couldn’t or wouldn’t do. She’s only 5-2, but she’s always been feisty.”

Those qualities were among those she passed on to her children, four grandchildren (two of whom were able to travel to Winnipeg to attend the birthday party), nieces and nephews.

“We’ve all got the travel bug,“ Barry Schreyer said. “From travel you learn. The key thing is meeting people. They taught us that at a young age. It’s enlightening. When you go away, the people you meet, that’s the thing. It makes you want to do more.”

Schreyer’s husband Tony died in 2002. In 2011, she moved into Concordia Village, which she has called home since.

“It’s been her second home,” Barry Schreyer said. “At her age, she feels secure. The people there are unbelievable. They do everything they can – within their budget, within their power – to make the people’s lives there better than if they were out on their own.”

While Barry gave credit to his mother’s work ethic and her strong belief in God, when Lillian was asked to what she attributed her longevity and good health, she just smiled, shrugged and said, “Oh, I don’t know.”