Helen Nixon pines for the days when she headed to the Elora Legion to prepare food or just to enjoy a cold beer with some friends.
“I loved every step I took in there,” Nixon said of her time as part of the Legion’s Ladies Auxiliary.
Mobility issues have kept the 98-year-old Wellington Terrace resident away for about the last five years or so.
But that didn’t stop local and zone Ladies Auxiliary officials from honouring Nixon on Oct. 19 with a 60-year membership pin.
“It’s not a common thing,” said Carol Kane, past president of the Ladies Auxiliary at Branch 229 in Elora.
In fact, Kane said Nixon is the Elora auxiliary’s only 60-year member. She added Nixon was very active at the Legion before moving into the nursing home in Aboyne.
Ladies Auxiliaries support the aims and objectives of the Legion and provide financial and volunteer support to the branch and its programs.
Nixon, who has lived in the Centre Wellington area for almost all her life, first joined the Fergus Legion’s auxiliary in 1952.
She explained her late husband, Howard Nixon, was a member of the militia as a young man, so she decided to join the Legion as well. She eventually moved to the Elora Legion and has spent time at both branches over the last 60 years.
“I made a lot of meals,” Nixon said with a smile. She also took part in countless Legion events and even served as Ladies Auxiliary president.
“I loved it,” she said. “I hope [current members] are liking it as much as I did.”
Nixon, an avid Advertiser reader who also volunteered at Groves hospital in Fergus for 25 years, said she would still be helping out at the Legion if not for her walker.
“I enjoyed all of the years I spent with the Ladies Auxiliary,” she said. “I wish I could do it all over again.”
