On 19 November 2015, fresh snow covered the roadside near Lillooet, British Columbia. Armand Foisy was driving his mother, Albina, then 101 years old, when he pulled over and she stepped out of the car, scooped up a handful of snow, shaped it into a snowball and threw it into the trees. Armand filmed the whole thing, and within days the clip was being shared around the world.
The 101-year-old woman and her snowball
The scene was short and simple. On a roadside a few kilometres outside town, Albina gathered the snow, packed it and tossed her snowball into the woods. Her verdict: "It's cold!"
Armand, a winemaker at Fort Berens Estate Winery in Lillooet, posted the clip online, and by early December 2015 it was on television and news sites well beyond British Columbia. FOX 13 in Utah called it proof that you are never too old to play in the snow. When Albina later saw herself on television, her reaction was simply: "Oh my, oh my, oh my."
Armand's advice from the experience was just as simple: keep the camera nearby for those special moments.
Lillooet, British Columbia, where snow is a treat
Part of the charm is where it happened. Lillooet is a small town of about 2,300 people on the west bank of the Fraser River, in the dry interior of southwestern British Columbia. Its Lillooet-language name is linked to the "place where the three rivers meet," and the St'at'imc people, who make up about half the area's population, have fished salmon at the nearby Bridge River Rapids for thousands of years.
The town boomed in the Fraser and Cariboo gold rushes of the late 1850s, when as many as 4,000 to 5,000 people lived here, and it became "Mile 0" of the Old Cariboo Road.
Lillooet is famous for heat, not snow. It holds British Columbia's records for April and May, and on 29 June 2021 it reached 46.8 °C, one of the highest temperatures ever measured in Canada. Average snowfall is only about 26.5 cm a year, the least of any place in the BC Interior. A fresh coat of snow on the roadside is a small event here, and Albina was not going to let it pass.
Never too old to play in the snow
The clip struck a chord because everyone recognises the feeling: the first snow of winter, the urge to pick it up, the cold sting on bare hands. Albina had lived through more than a century of winters and still wanted to make a snowball.
A few easy ideas for a winter outing with older relatives or the whole family:
- Choose a cleared, level spot close to the car or the front door, as Armand did.
- Bring gloves and a warm drink, and keep the visit short and sweet.
- Build something small together: a snowball, a mini snowman or a snow angel on a bench.
- Film it. A one-minute video can become the family's favourite memory.
Need inspiration? Browse our creative snowman ideas, or meet the youngest member of a hiking family in Bodhi Bennett’s early outdoor adventures.
Related reading: Rolling Up Snow: An Unusual Winter Demonstration.
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