Bill’s sweet adventure

Bill’s sweet adventure

AN Annacloy man who emigrated to Canada 85 years ago has celebrated his one hundredth birthday. Bill McCreedy, who became a candy maker, is still enjoying a long life that once involved eating sweets every day.

On September 10 as Bill received birthday cards and messages from family and friends, a Canadian Mountie presented him with a birthday card from Queen Elizabeth.

Bill was the eldest of 11 children and in 1929 he and his sister Louise, who was 14 at the time, were taken to Canada by an aunt who worked there as a nurse.

Long before the days of commercial air travel, their journey to Canada took 11 days by boat and train.

Despite the journey the real shock was their arrival in French-speaking Quebec City. “I had never known there was such a thing as a different language. It brought tears to my eyes and I wanted to get back on the boat and they wouldn’t let me,” he said.

Before leaving Northern Ireland Bill had worked in a linen mill and looked after 22 sheep and four goats on the family farm in the townland of Dunnanelly.

On arrival in Edmonton Bill found work as a newspaper carrier, earning six cents per hour.

In 1929, the day before his 16 birthday, he started a new job with the Pavey Candy-Company, where he worked for the next 59 years.

The dream job involved making chocolates, jellies, caramels and hard candy and the sweet products had to be tested: “Simply because you wanted to make sure the flavour was right. You had one off every batch,” he explained.

When he was married, and with his brother-in-law’s help, Bill built a new family home to live in with his wife Olga and their children Jim and Joan.

Then in 1961 tragedy struck when Olga’s dress caught fire as she was reaching over the gas stove. Her injuries proved fatal and she passed away six weeks later.

The next year Bill’s sister Nell and his niece Myrtle Ward moved to Canada to live with him and in 1972, after noticing Myrtle’s coughing fits, he took the healthy step of quitting smoking: “It never even fazed me. People say they can’t quit, I don’t understand it,” he said.

Until recently Bill travelled home to County Down every two or three years and his niece Frances Bennett, from Crossgar, said: “He has had a good life and he has never forgotten his roots.

“The family is still in regular contact with him, especially the older members who know him better.

“He has no grandchildren, he would have spoiled them rotten. When he first made chocolates he always sent samples home to County Down,” she said.

Despite retiring Bill still makes assorted sweets to treat his family, friends, doctor and banker every Christmas.

Today two of Bill’s sisters still live in Down District. Mary lives in Downpatrick and Evelyn, the baby of the family, lives in Killyleagh.