Chances are, there’s a little bit of Kay Sakata’s green-thumbed handiwork gracing a lot of Richmond gardens.
The Steveston resident — who turned 100 on March 11, although her official birthday was on Monday (March 21), the date her birth was actually registered — has been known for decades as the person behind a lush green spot in the heart of the historic fishing village.
According to family members, who helped her celebrate the landmark, trips to places such as London Heritage Farm would often leave her with a smile of delight on her face.
“She’d say, ‘Oh, I’ve got flowers like that in my garden,’” said Lise Mercier, Sakata’s daughter-in-law.
“And she did, because Kay would give away plants and cuttings from her own garden that ended up in places like London Farm over the years.”
The beauty of Sakata’s garden outside the family home on First Avenue became so well known, that it became a regular stop for countless people, who would stroll by and have a word with the “gardener.”
It became a regular thing that when a friend — just about anybody qualified for that status with the affable Sakata — dropped by, they would leave with a plant.
That love for the outdoors and cultivating a rich and colourful landscape came from growing up on her family’s seven-acre farm that was located on Garry Street, near the village.
She went to elementary school at nearby Lord Byng, and later graduated from Richmond High in 1933.
When her family was interned during the Second World War in the B.C. interior, she ended up meeting a handsome, young fisherman, Shozo Sakata, and the two were married in Grand Forks in 1949.
The couple moved back to Steveston shortly afterwards and moved into the First Avenue house, where she still lives today.
They had two children, Carol-Lyn and Adam.
A good part of her working life, through the 1960s and ‘70s, was spent at the local cannery (B.C. Packers). And as a skilled seamstress, she would teach sewing at the local Buddhist temple and on the second floor of the Hepworth building in Steveston Village.
But it was her love of gardening that shined through.
Many of the flowers she grew were displayed in her many entries to the annual Steveston Salmon Festival’s Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) competitions. She also served as parade marshal at the Salmon Festival in 2006.
Now in a wheelchair, Sakata has had to give up hands-on involvement in her garden. Family members have chipped in to keep things tidy.
But Sakata hasn’t stopped leading an active life. She was in her 80s when she declared to family that she wanted to see the world. And so far, she’s seen most of it, save for South America.
She recently had her passport renewed in hopes of one day travelling again.
Asked if she had any secrets to her longevity, Sakata laughed and said, “I don’t really know. I never imagined getting to be 100. I guess being happy helped.”
