Ms. Lane with the Cane: Nonagenarian steals show at Boston Post Cane ceremony

As proud family members look on, Maria Lane accepts a citation from Maine State Rep. Karen Gerrish during Lane's recognition ceremony as the recipient of the town's Boston Post Cane. (Lebanon Voice photo)

COPYRIGHT2017© LEBANON - When Lebanon's newest Boston Post Cane alumni was asked if she ever thought she'd be the 98-year-old recipient of such an honor, she smiled and quipped without a beat, "I never thought I'd be 98."

And so it was in a ceremony full of proud family members and smiles all around that Maria Evelyn Lane of Sewel Shore Road became installed as the newest recipient of the Boston Post Cane, which were supplied by the former Hub newspaper and awarded to many New England towns' oldest living resident in the early 1900s.

Lane was born on Sept. 9, 1919, in Stellarton, Nova Scotia and moved to Boston at the age of 7 where she graduated from East Boston High. Lane married Maxwell Lane in 1942 and they bought a summer home in Lebanon on Sewell Shortes Road in 1968. After her husband died in 1978, she moved to Lebanon full time.

Surrounded on Friday afternoon by family members and friends inside a standing-room-only selectmen's office, Lane received plaques from Maine State Rep. Karen Gerrish and Selectman Paul Nadeau, and flowers from Selectmen Vice Chair Laura Bragg.

Selectmen Chair Chip Harlow emceed the ceremony and gave a short speech in honor of Lane.

When asked by Harlow if she wanted to say a few words Lane said, "All day long I'd think of everything, but now I can't think of anything."

After Harlow joked that he didn't want to have to perform this ceremony for a good long time, a family member of Lane's who was in attendance added, "And she's always wanted to be 100."

"I never thought I'd be 100," Lane retorted, "but I always thought I'd want to be 99."