What if you live to be 102 years old. Are you taking care of your body and mind to be present if the time came? These are thoughts I have had to ask myself after visiting my great aunt that is 102 years old. I thought it would be fun to see the changes of our society at certain ages of our lives and date them with my great aunt’s. Here are the following:
18 Years Old: 1930 and the beginning of the Dust Bowl.
25 Years Old: 1937 Electricity comes to the farm.
30 Years Old: 1942 Iowa’s Sullivan Brothers Killed in WW II. In 1998 Saving Private Ryan movie was made with Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg.
40 Years Old: 1952 Polio Reaches Its Peak in Iowa.
50 Years Old: 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis happens in October. I am 54 years old and it puts it into perspective.
61 Years Old: 1973 Arab Oil Embargo affects consumers.
70 Years Old: 1982 Farm Crisis began forcing many family farmers into foreclosure.
82 Years Old: 1994 Satellite Technology Changes Farming.
89 Years Old: 2001 America Under Attack on 9/11.
100 Years Old: 2012 March 7th Hilda Doyen turns 100 years old! Friends and family had a birthday party that weekend.
102 Years Old: 2014 The day after Hilda’s 102 birthday which was March 7th, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappears. On Friday, April 25th, my mom and I got to see Hilda for the first time in two years. It was a wonderful reunion as my mom and Hilda are so close. During the war while Mom’s parents went off to California during the war to work in the ship yards, Hilda and her husband Andy took care of my mom.
Saturday was a wonderful day for Hilda. The day before her 102nd birthday Hilda may possibly had a small stroke. The nursing staff noticed a big difference in Hilda’s personality. Hilda was so happy to see us that she slept good the night before and was able to visit in the present tense with a few times drifting into the past. We didn’t mind. We loved to hear the stories.
The following are photos of my great aunt Hilda that had been known to bake some sticky rolls and put them in the mail to me. Now that makes me feel special!
4 thoughts on “102 Years Old! Oh My!”
What a blessing!! My grandmother is 92 (or 94) and she too for the most part is in good health mentally and physically- here’s hoping we got their genes!! BB2U
Thank you and yes what a blessing! She was having a difficult time hearing until they cleaned her hearing aide. The doctor ordered to have her ears cleaned. Mom talked to her yesterday and she was so excited that she could hear so well. She told Mom to call her lots. She will be answering the phone because she can hear it now. Thank you for commenting.
Wow! 102! That’s amazing! I’ve never had anyone in my family live to that age. My great grandmother lived to 95. It was interesting to read through her experiences at different ages. Thanks for linking up to #throwbackthursday link up!
Yes Tanya, when I decided I was going to write the blog about her using the approach I did with the links, I had no idea where it would take me but it did take me to some very important happenings in mankind. I knew of the Sullivan boys from WW II from the movie Saving Private Ryan. I just didn’t put the two together that these boys were from Iowa. And also the fact that she was my age when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. Thank you for commenting.