Arnprior, Ont. curling icon celebrates 98 years

Isobel Munro hasn't thrown a curling rock in 15 years, but she is still a prominent figure at every bonspiel at the Arnprior Curling Club.

On Saturday, the club celebrated Munro's 98th birthday—every year spent in Arnprior.

"Oh, this is her life," says Steve Munro, Isobel's son.

"She was a member in I believe 1946, so it's been 75 years or more that she's been a member of the curling club."

Munro was a pioneer for the game of curling in the town of Arnprior, winning medals at both the Ontario and Canadian Curling Championships during her sporting career.

"It just started to be a fun game," Munro tells CTV News.

"It was a big thrill because we didn't expect we were going to do things like that."

Her love of the game has been injected into the Munro DNA.

"She curled, we grew up at the curling rink, our father curled in Parry Sound, we grew up watching him," recalls Munro's granddaughter Holly Lopez. "We played competitively in high school."

Lopez says her grandmother never played the game for the glory. It was all in the love of the sport.

"She always talks about having a good attitude and you're always there with the team," said Lopez. "It's not about the individual, it's about the team."

"I like it because it's a team game," says Munro. "One person doesn't go anywhere without the other one."

Over her decades of service to the Arnprior Curling Club, the local icon has done every job available in the building, from cooking in the kitchen to holding the title as president.

Current club president Mike Reid says, despite being named a lifetime member decades ago, Munro continues to pay her club fees.

"She's served us in many ways," Reid said. "She's donated to our programs. We recently purchased all these curling rocks and she's donated to that program."

A curling rock with Isobel Munro's name on it at the Arnprior Curling Club. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News Ottawa)

After 15 years of being out of the sport, Munro says she still misses the game and would get out on the ice if she could and her hip hadn't needed replacing.

The foundations of what the curling club is today is built on Munro's curling rocks.

"She loves this town," says Lopez.

"She supports everything the town does and the town shows their love back."