Recycling duo return to Inuvik for birthday party

Papa and the Recycling Lady returned to Inuvik for the first time in two years to celebrate a big birthday with their even bigger family last weekend.

Papa – also known as Albert Bernhardt – turned 80 April 12. His wife, the Recycling Lady – also known as Barbara Armstrong – helped organize a surprise party for him at the Lighthouse Community Church April 14.

Bernhardt and Armstrong moved to a farming community just outside of London, Ont., approximately seven years ago.

"It's wonderful to be back, to be with our family," said Armstrong.

Between the two of them, Armstrong said they have 12 children from previous marriages. She estimates they have 65 grandchildren and 100 great-grandchildren.

"I couldn't tell you a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I'd be wrong. But the oldest of the great-grandchildren are old enough to make Albert a great-great-grandfather, so it is really amazing."

Bernhardt's children can take part of the credit for the pair meeting in 2001, on Valentine's Day, at the dump.

"I wanted to look after the dump because my kids were swimming in Boot Lake," Bernhardt recalls. "You know where the dump is, up on the hill, and where the lake is. Every spring, the snow melts from the dump and runs down into the lake. My kids would go swim in the lake, and the next day they would have red marks and rashes on them. Right then, I knew I had to do something because I can't keep the kids out of the lake, it's the only place they could swim."

Bernhardt took over the dump in 2000, and the next year Armstrong moved to Inuvik for a contract job with the Inuvik Recycling Society. Together, they cleaned up the dump and implemented recycling initiatives in Inuvik.

"If you ask Albert how we met, he will say that he prayed for some help, and I showed up at the dump one day," said Armstrong. "Albert and I worked side by side for maybe seven or eight months, and there was never anything but work, and then one day he's dropping me off at home and he looks at me and out of the blue and asked me to marry him."

Armstrong said she was taken aback, but eventually realized she felt the same way. They married shortly after in Mexico.

Now, the pair live on a farm near London, Ont., where they raise their White Shepherds.

"We do things the traditional way. I'm a bit of an environmental nut – we're not a kennel, we free-range our farm. We completely fenced it. We only have unaltered dogs, and we only feed them raw," said Armstrong. "Papa still harvests everything we feed them the traditional way."