HAGERSVILLE—It was an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day as James ‘Jim’ Mills sat in a gathering room at Anson Place on Monday, March 10, 2025 with his family, glass of wine in hand and a smile on his face, to celebrate his 105th birthday with a look back on a life well lived.
Not many people can say they got to share a bottle of wine with their 105-year-old father. At 77-years-old herself, Susan Fowler realizes just how lucky she is to have such “an amazing dad”.
Born in the village of Endeavour, Saskatchewan in 1920 as one of nine siblings, Mills spent the first part of his life living and working on his grandparents’ grain farm, playing hockey, and running the village post office for a period until World War II broke out.
Mills answered the call to arms, enlisting and travelling overseas, where he served in the Canadian Armed Forces in France, Germany, and Holland. Asked what he remembers about those days, Mills answered truthfully, “Not a lot.”
His daughter Susan noted, “When Holland was liberated, he was there.”
According to Veteran Affairs, more than 7,600 Canadians died in the eight months it took to liberate the Netherlands between September 1944 to April 1945, cited as a key culminating moment in the war as “Allied forces closed in on Germany from all sides.”
While serving, Mills met his future wife in England, and stayed in Holland and then Britain for a few years following the war’s end in 1945, continuing to work for the Army as an engineer. Eventually, the pair returned to Canada in 1956, with Susan noting, “Britain was in a bad way after the war. There was better work over here, so as a Canadian citizen, he came back.”
Settling in Galt, Mills continued to work as an engineer, enjoying a long career with the Canadian Armed Forces. Following retirement, the couple moved to a small home in Huntsville, where he loved to fish and took up new hobbies like woodworking and marquetry.
Asked what the secret to his long life has been, Mills took a long sip of wine and replied, “I’m still trying to figure it out.”
Surrounded by his daughter, her husband John, and his brother Martin, it’s not so hard to understand. Mills is clearly beloved by those who know him best.
Susan praised her dad’s relentless work ethic in life.
“He never stopped working, ever,” she said.
A little grit doesn’t hurt, either.
“My brother’s son was a big guy,” recalled John. “He made a hockey rink up for us at his cottage. He put lights up and everything. He said ‘I’ll take you on and I’ll beat you gramps’. Jim got on the ice … (and) he put him down, didn’t he? Ran circles around him.”
John elaborated, noting how even well after retirement, “Because of his background in farming … he would be up at the crack of dawn, he would come in for his corn flakes, it had to be corn flakes, with his coffee, and then back out again, and he would work all day in the bush doing whatever Jim does.”
They characterized Mills as a man who dislikes TV, but loves his whiskey, a good book, being active whenever possible, and as a father and grandfather who has remained devoted to his family.
John commended Mills’ sense of humour, alive and well to this day: “Look at that silly grin,” John said, pointing at his father-in-law.
Martin shared another memory that defines Mills in his eyes: “On his 100th birthday at Leisure Living in Jarvis in their common room, he was sat down in his chair, and every time somebody came into that room, and it was busy, he got up to receive their happy birthday – no walker, no cane, nothing. I will never, ever forget that.”
Finally, Susan touched on perhaps the real reason Jim Mills is here today to celebrate 105 years of life.
“He laughed a lot, always smiled,” she said. “My dad never had anger in his life. Never.”
Jim gave some parting advice to all looking to live a long, healthy, and adventurous life like he has: “I’ve been pretty well around the world,” he shared. “Keep going.”
