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‘It started small and has snowballed’: 99th birthday cards requested for Williams Lake senior

A family friend hopes Rudy Johnson’s mailbox will be flooded with cards
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Rudy Johnson will be turning 99 on Monday, Dec. 13. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Williams Lake’s own Rudy Johnson will be turning 99 on Monday, Dec. 13, and a family friend has asked people to consider sending him a birthday card.

The friend, who wants to remain anonymous so Johnson won’t know where the idea came from, told the Tribune what started out small has snowballed with lots of people showing an interest.

“I know he will get such a kick out of it and the conversations he will have describing the different cards. He is known far and wide and I thought this would be a good way to pick up his spirits.”

Originally from Sweden, Johnson emigrated to Canada at the age of nine. He moved to the Cariboo in 1947.

“Johnson has kept a journal since age 13,” noted a previous article in the Tribune. “He was a pilot, a prospector, a sawmill owner, a rancher as well as the force behind the construction of the Rudy Johnson bridge across the Fraser River which he completed in 1968.”

He and his late wife Helen were married for 77 years. They moved into Seniors Village six years ago and she died on May 21, 2021.

Johnson’s address at Seniors Village Retirement Concepts is #360 - 1455 Western Avenue, Williams Lake, B.C. V2G 5N1.

READ MORE: CASUAL COUNTRY 2021: The legacy of Rudy Johnson and the bridge

READ MORE: Rudy Johnson book signing set for library evening



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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