Sechelt resident Mary Florence Moroz, thought to be the province's oldest person, died Sept. 2 at the age of 108, surrounded by family at Shorncliffe Village.
An accordionist, moonshine-maker and one-time bootlegger's wife, Moroz's family remembers her as "spirited" and a physically-fit "superwoman."
"We spent the day [Sept.2] beside her bed, holding her hand, showering her with kisses and constantly telling her how amazing she is and how much she is loved by us, and by family and friends who couldn't be there," said her great-granddaughter Corinne Sopow-Oreamuno.
Moroz, who is of Russian ancestry, was born in Kamsack, Sask. on May 20, 1902.
In the 1920s, she moved to Concrete, Wash, with her first husband, Pete Sopow, whom her family believes had links to the Russian mafia. When Sopow's involvement in bootlegging moonshine during the early years of Prohibition attracted the authorities' attention, the couple fled back across the border and settled in Merritt.
After a divorce, Moroz later remarried CN Railway employee Fred Moroz.
As a housewife, Moroz raised six children and made homemade alcohol to sell to Merritt locals. A decade ago, when moving Moroz from Merritt to Shorncliffe Village Care Home in Sechelt, her son Stan Sopow remembers finding 200 jugs of her homemade wine amongst her belongings.
Sopow-Oreamuno remembers her great-grandmother as "flirtatious, hilarious and "full of life." Moroz, she said, would play accordion and harmonica and often sang in Russian.
"I was very privileged to have had her in my life, as well as my son Kayden's life, who is her youngest [great-great-] grandchild," Sopow-Oreamuno said.
Sopow-Oreamuno added that the staff at Shorncliffe were "Great Grandma's other family."
"The Sopow family can't express how much the Shorncliffe staff meant to Grandma and her family," Sopow-Oreamuno said.
Moroz died peacefully, surrounded by her grandson Stan Sopow and his wife Karen, her great grandchildren Michael Sopow and Sopow-Oreamuno, and her great-great-grandson Kayden.
