by Eunice Trotter, American Senior Communities
Another birthday, another year older. But 106-year-old Florence Anna Williams can pass for decades younger.
She celebrated her 106th birthday on March 30th and is still as sharp as a tack. The question she’s asked every year has not changed either. It’s asked whenever people learn she’s well over 100 years old.
“What’s your secret to longevity?” people have asked for the last several years.
“I always worked hard,’’ she said. “I never smoked and never drank.”
Other than that, there’s nothing special she’s done to live so long.
“Hard work is what kept me going,” she said.
She and her family celebrated at Rosegate Assisted Living, where she’s lived since she was 98 years old. Last year, Mayor Greg Ballard gave her a special certificate for reaching her 105th milestone. This year, her birthday will be filled with more surprises.
She has a full head of thick hair, quick wit, great memory and nice skin she keeps supple with daily use of a moisturizer. Prior to moving to Rosegate while in her 90s, she was the caregiver for two of her sisters until they both passed.
At Rosegate, she exercises with a little help by walking in the hallways. She attends weekly bible study meetings and church services at Rosegate every Sunday. Her hearing and vision are not what they used to be, but that doesn’t stop her from living her life to the fullest.
She loves crocheting and did it until she was 102, when her vision stopped her. She made 10 scarves for the Indianapolis Colts who donated them to volunteers who helped with the Super Bowl held in Indianapolis.
Mrs. Williams was born to Olive and Oliver Megenhart in Illinois. The Megenhart family moved to Coal City, Indiana, southeast of Terre Haute, Ind. After the death of her father, her mother purchased a five-acre farm where she and her sisters and brothers grew up. They had chickens and a cow, plenty of fruit trees and very little money.
“My mother did what she could to make a living. We all worked, but we didn’t know we were poor because we always had good stuff to eat,” she said.
She graduated from Coal City High School in 1927 and went to work at the County Hospital in Martinsville as a nurse’s aide. She also worked as a nanny for an Indianapolis family until she got married. Mrs. Williams worked for 22 years at Peerless Pump.
She and her husband, Clarence, had one son, Robert. They had been married 50 years when he died in 1976. “I never remarried because I had too good of a husband. I never thought that I would find anyone as good as my husband and I would have compared them,” she said.
Her family visits regularly, said Mrs. Williams, who has two granddaughters, six great grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren. “I don’t know why He’s keeping me here, but I guess I have a purpose.”
