Marjorie Fish Puiia, 98, holds the gold-headed Boston Post cane presented by the Rumford selectmen Thursday at Rumford Community Home. From left are Town Manager Linda-Jean Briggs, Selectman Mark Belanger, Selectman Peter Chase, Puiia’s son, Wayne Puiia, and her daughter, Dolly Colton. (Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times)

RUMFORD — For the first time since 1987, the Boston Post cane was presented to the town’s oldest resident Thursday.

Marjorie Fish Puiia, 98, held the gold-headed ebony cane presented to her by Selectman Peter Chase at the Rumford Community Home. Her daughter, Dolly Colton, and sons Wayne, Larry and Greg, watched, along with Town Manager Linda-Jean Briggs and Selectman Mark Belanger. 

Puiia was also given flowers, a framed certificate and a decorated cake.

Colton said her mother loved to fish, play cards and have an occasional coffee brandy.

“She still does!” her daughter said.

Puiia was born Dec. 4, 1919, in Bath and moved to Bethel, where she graduated from Gould Academy, Colton read at the ceremony. Puiia married Eugene Puiia and they settled in a home on Holyoke Avenue in Rumford, where she had spent most of her life before moving into Rumford Community Home.

The cane had not been presented for over 30 years because it was lost. It showed up recently, broken, and was sent to Mike Chase of Custom Wood Turning in Farmington for repair and was returned Thursday morning.

The cane will be held by the town.