Oldest person you ever knew?

[AtomicEraTom]

So sorry to hear such awful news, Shangas. My thoughts are with you and your family.

 

[J.B.]

My deepest condolences to you and your family, Shangas.

 

[dhermann1]

Shangas, I send you my deepest condolances, but I know you know that your grandmother really got her money's worth out of life. That is a great gift to you. How wonderful, and what uncanny timing, that you posted her picture so recently.

 

[Shangas]

Thanks everyone.

Gran was born on the 7th of May. 1914. She died on the 28th of November, 2011. 9:30am.

The funeral will be this Friday, the 2nd of December. Myself, my father, my Uncle John, one cousin flying in specially for the occasion and I think also another cousin, will be in attendance. It'll be a small, quiet service. Nothing too fancy.

Dad said that once someone dies, you only have the memories, the photographs and their momentos to remember them by.

So, I'd like to share something.

This photograph was taken several years ago. That's my grandmother and my two great-aunts. Gran is on the left, wearing black.

On the ring-finger of her left hand, you might notice a jade ring.

This is the ring in that photograph.

 

[DesertDan]

My condolences to you and your family Shangas.

 

[hatophile]

Sorry to hear about your gran, Shangas. Thanks for the photos.

 

[vintage_jayhawk]

So sorry for your loss Shangas. I lost my dear Grandmother back in September (she was also 97--born April 22, 1914). That woman was my hero. I got to spend the last week of her life with her, and was fortunate enough to be able to tell her that. She was feisty and alert right up to the end. I expect the hole they leave behind never entirely heals. My thoughts are with you.

 

[Stanley Doble]

When I was 7 or 8 years old a very old man was pointed out to me as a veteran of the Boer War. This was in the mid fifties.

The oldest people I knew personally were my mother's aunts, who were born in the 1870s and 1880s. The youngest of them, who was always considered sickly and the baby of the family, died in her 100th year in 1986.

I also knew 2 of mother's great aunts who were a generation older. They were spinster ladies who lived in a big Victorian brick house left to them by their father. He was a successful real estate speculator in the late 19th century and left them well fixed. One taught piano, the other taught china painting.

In the fall I helped my father put up their storm windows. They said one of the neighbor boys used to do it but for some reason he didn't want to do it anymore. When we got outside my dad laughed and said the neighbor boy they were talking about was around 75 years old lol.

 

[Stearmen]

This might interest a few of you! I started thinking, how many people that were born in the 1800s are still alive? I knew, it could not be very many. This is a little out of date, may be even fewer now, as of November 15, 2013, there were just five documented people born before 1900! I knew a lot of people, including two of my Grand parents, who were born in the 1890s. My Dads Father was also born then, but he died before I was born. Japan: Misao Okawa, born March 1898; age 115 years, 255 days
United States: Jeralean Talley, born May 23, 1899; age 113 years, 172 days
United States: Susannah Mushatt Jones, born July 6, 1899; age 114 years, 132 days
United States: Bernice Madigan, born 24 July, 1899; age 114 years, 114 days
Italy: Emma Morana-Martinuzzi, born November 29, 1899; age 113 years, 351 days

 

[ChiTownScion]

One of my wife's relatives lived to the age of 110. I met her when she was 104: still quite alert. She apologized for not being as up on current events (the first Gulf War)as she would like because she only subscribed to the large print edition of US News and World Report, and didn't feel that was enough to give her a full range of news information!

She was the first female grad of Baylor University, and was the widow of the first Rhodes Scholar from the state of Texas. Quite an amazing lady.

 

[Atticus Finch]

It just occurred to me that as I get older, so does the oldest person I ever knew.

She was over a hundred years old when I met her in 1965 or so. She had spent her entire life in Beaufort, where she had been born a Confederate child of Confederate parents. Obviously, she remembered nothing of the war...but she was the only actual Confederate I ever knew.

AF

 

[Shangas]

It's that time of year again. If you flip back one page, you'll see the postings I made about my grandmother's death.

Today is the 7th of May, 2014. Had my grandmother survived another three years, today would have been her 100th birthday.

 

[Feraud]

The oldest person I know is my maternal grandmother Maria at 93 years old.
She was born in 1921 in Orsogna, Italy and came to American in 1956 at 35 years old with two children (my mom and uncle) in tow. Her husband wasn’t allowed to enter the country at that time I believe due to a potential lung issue or something like that.. My grandfather was allowed in a year or so later. He died in the 1960s and I never met him. From what I heard he was a drinker and likely physically abusive so no loss there.

We lived with my grandmother our whole lives and she helped raise her daughter’s four children. She provided the emotional, physical, and financial support to allow her daughter to flourish and exceed what is defined as "The American Dream".
Unfortunately the last couple of years when my grandmother needed her family for help with health issues my family was able but totally unwilling to support her.
The dismissive attitude shown to my grandmother is a very sore point with me and something I will always hold against anyone in my family who voted to get rid of her.

The good news is she is doing well in an assisted living facility very close to my home. We visit frequently and she tells anyone who will listen that my 20 year old son Dylan is, “her medicine”.

 

[Shangas]

Grandmothers are the pillars that hold families up. My dad often told me that if it were not for his mother (my paternal grandmother whose birthday it is today), we wouldn't have the lives that we have now. She almost literally raised every person in our family, for two generations. My dad, my aunt, her nephews and nieces, and almost every grandchild (my cousins) on my dad's side of the family, in one way, or another.

My mother once said that dad's family history wasn't as interesting as hers. It's not something I personally believe in. Gran ran her own business for 30 years. And she supported a husband, four kids (one of which was my dad), and a housekeeper and her niece with nowhere else to go, using just one shop and a Singer sewing machine (which I have since inherited, and wouldn't sell for anything).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Grandmothers are the pillars that hold families up. My dad often told me that if it were not for his mother (my paternal grandmother whose birthday it is today), we wouldn't have the lives that we have now. She almost literally raised every person in our family, for two generations. My dad, my aunt, her nephews and nieces, and almost every grandchild (my cousins) on my dad's side of the family, in one way, or another.

My mother once said that dad's family history wasn't as interesting as hers. It's not something I personally believe in. Gran ran her own business for 30 years. And she supported a husband, four kids (one of which was my dad), and a housekeeper and her niece with nowhere else to go, using just one shop and a Singer sewing machine (which I have since inherited, and wouldn't sell for anything).

My grandmother was the single most influential person in my life. She only made it to 69, but she'd be 103 if she made it to this year. There isn't a day that's gone by in the thirty-three years she's been gone that I don't think of her. The women of that generation came to adulthood in the teeth of the Depression and though it might have scarred them, they were survivors -- and worthy role models for us all.

Last week I interviewed a 97-year-old radio actress/writer who started her career in 1937 earning fifteen dollars a week -- and she plugged and worked and persisted until seven years later, she owned, wrote, and starred in her own five-night-a-week network comedy program. Only after achieving all this did she get around to getting married, and she continued her career for nearly thirty years after that.

Strong, independent women. The Era was full of them.

 

[sheeplady]

The oldest person I know lived to be 96, his name was Jack. He learned to cross-country ski at 75. His property bordered ours on the back, and it was a 20 minute walk to our house through the woods from his to ours. He hiked/skied it at least once a month to come for breakfast, always unannounced. He had worked for the telephone company. His father had owned my parents farm (including his lot and several other lots that were sold off before my father bought the property) and they had used it as an apple orchard/ summer home/ income farm since 1913 until the late 1970s. He considered the house his home.

I can remember one time he came over and was telling us about having to get his knee replaced. The doctor told him that the replacement would let him keep skiing, hiking, etc. but that the replacement was only good for 50 years and after that he would need another surgery. He laughed and said that he told the doctor, "Doc, I'm 80. I don't know what kind of miracle worker you think you are, but I doubt I'm going to outlive my knee replacement."

The good news is she is doing well in an assisted living facility very close to my home. We visit frequently and she tells anyone who will listen that my 20 year old son Dylan is, “her medicine”.

I'm glad your grandmother is doing well. My husband's grandmother (now passed) had severe dementia. When she was declining she was placed in assisted living (and later transferred to the nursing home facility as she declined further). She had always been a social butterfly, so when she first went into assisted living she really enjoyed herself because there were people to gossip about. Since she never drove (and quite frankly couldn't once she declined) and didn't live in a walkable neighborhood, she had been very isolated after her husband had passed. I'd never really been a fan of assisted living, but I saw how wonderful it was for her.

On the other hand, my husband's other grandmother (now also passed) wanted to die at home and was placed in the same facility. It was the wrong fit for her and it was really sad.

 

[HudsonHawk]

My grandmother was the single most influential person in my life. She only made it to 69, but she'd be 103 if she made it to this year. There isn't a day that's gone by in the thirty-three years she's been gone that I don't think of her. The women of that generation came to adulthood in the teeth of the Depression and though it might have scarred them, they were survivors -- and worthy role models for us all.

Last week I interviewed a 97-year-old radio actress/writer who started her career in 1937 earning fifteen dollars a week -- and she plugged and worked and persisted until seven years later, she owned, wrote, and starred in her own five-night-a-week network comedy program. Only after achieving all this did she get around to getting married, and she continued her career for nearly thirty years after that.

Strong, independent women. The Era was full of them.

My grandmother was quite a character. She sang in the choir at the Baptist church on Sunday morning, but could cuss up a blue streak on Saturday night, though she only kept the bottle of Jack Daniel's around for "medicinal purposes". She was a fabulous cook and made the best red velvet cake I've ever had. She was a huge sports fan, and I'm told she was a terrific athlete in her day, a runner and swimmer and even played basketball with the boys. She took me to see Spring Training games, loved the Detroit Tigers (they trained in her town), Florida Gator football and hated the University of Georgia with a rare passion. She referred to their football coach Vince Dooley as "Ol' Wormhead". She loved movies (she called them pictures, which I always loved), particularly westerns, and took me to many, including my first James Bond movie. She also made me scrub the awnings on her house and pick strawberries, both of which I hated. She was born in 1916, which would make her 97 today, though she died in 1989. I miss her every day.

 

[Matt Crunk]

The oldest person I ever knew, or at least that I was close to, was my maternal step-grandfather. He'd married my grandmother long before I was born so I was much closer to him than to my mother's biological father, whom my grandmother had divorced when my mother was a teenager. So for all practical purposes, he was my grandfather.

He was born in Mississippi in 1900 but grew up mostly in Texas. He began working for the railroad in his teens as a yard hand and worked his way up to locomotive engineer, driving steam engines through most of his career. During prohibition he worked a line that ran between Memphis and New Orleans, and kept a rented room in both cities. One of my favorite pastimes growing up was to listen to him tell stories of his railroad adventures, and of speak-easys and street life in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. (I no doubt have him to thank for my fascination with the Golden Era). He was too young for WWI and too old for WWII, so he never served in the military. He drove trains up until he retired in the 1960s, after spending the later half of his career pulling trains for TVA.

After retirement from the railroad, he became a small-scale cattle rancher and horse trader. This is when I knew him. Even though he was a blue collar man, I never once saw him in jeans. I don't think he owned a pair. He was always in a dress shirt and pants, and rarely left the house without a coat and hat. When he went into town it was usually in a full suit and fedora, or sometimes a cowboy hat and bolo tie. He always dressed up when going out. Again, that's probably where I get my love for fedoras and vintage style. Standing 6'2" and over 250 lbs, he was an impressive man, and one of the most important male figures in my life. Sadly, he took his own life in 1989, just a few months shy of his 90th birthday. 25 years later I still miss him terribly.

Below is a photo of my grandfather, George Amerson, in one of the many steam locomotives he drove over his career.

 

[GHT]

The oldest person, or to be precise, people, that I knew, were three of my grandparents. My paternal grandfather fell victim to Hitler's bombs on London in WW2, but his wife, plus maternal grandparents all lived to 98. My paternal grandmother started smoking around about 12 to 13 years old. Always untipped, full strength tobacco, smoked them her entire life. Paternal grandparents never touched tobacco, ever. All three lived until they were just shy of their century.
Go figure.

 

[3fingers]

I had a neighbor growing up who lived to 103. She's been gone probably at least 25 years now. She was very interesting to visit with. She came to Illinois from Kentucky in a wagon. She saw the Graf zeppelin in flight. She remembered the first airplanes and automobiles, yet lived to see men on the moon. Her mind was perfectly clear until she died. In fact, if her children could not remember something, they would ask their mother, as she always seemed to remember everything. My paternal grandmother lived to be 93. She was always my safe harbor in a childhood that had a lot of rough water. She was also sharp as a tack until the end. She had a sudden heart attack and was gone. She would be 106 now. I loved her fiercely and I still miss her every day. In fact I'm tearing up and my chest hurts as I type this.