Story in the Patriot Ledger:
------------
Elizabeth Mitton started putting her outfit together two days before her birthday party Sunday. “It’s a new dress that I have had for a while – it is polka dots,” she said last week. Once the big day arrived, however, she changed her mind, going with a classic black skirt that has been a staple in her closet.
Mitton turned 100 on Monday – a “very healthy 100; I don’t even take an aspirin,” she is quick to tell you.
About 40 family members and friends attended the birthday party. Some were from the 50 years Mitton lived in Quincy, on Independence Avenue; she moved from there to Holbrook seven years ago. Among them were the Smiths, who she housed and took care of like her own family years ago.
Asked why she has lived so long, she immediately answers, “That’s up to the Lord. He takes care of me.” Although she hasn’t been to church in years, she says, “I do listen to my preachers on the radio.”
As for the state of the nation that has gone from President William Taft when she was born to President Obama, she replies, “I love to be an American, and I love my country. I really like Sarah Palin. I’m not happy with the way this country is going. Nothing is sacred anymore.”
Opinionated, upbeat and energetic, Mitton lives with two of her five children: daughter Carole Newcomb and son Wainwright. He is named after her late husband, a baker who died in 1999 at age 96, just shy of 70 years of marriage. Her other three children have died, but she has 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Born in Charlestown of Scottish heritage, Mitton has quite good hearing and good vision, and in many ways she runs the household. She does light household cleaning, pays her bills and helps decide the daily schedule.
For example, for her birthday, she decided to have new granite countertops installed and had the kitchen repainted in blue and white.
Mitton raised her children in Clinton and then near Central Square in Cambridge, where her husband owned My Own Donuts, a doughnut shop. They bought their house in Quincy in 1949.
Dana Wilson, who is married to Mitton’s grandson Charles Pratt of Grafton, calls her Nana, enjoys her sense of humor and finds her an inspiration.
“She has a very good memory and mind,” Wilson said. “For my birthday, she gave me a book, ‘Going Rogue’ by Sarah Palin. She has read it and she expects me to also.”
----------
You hear that media? A 100-year-old woman is one up on you. She's actually read the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment