| Centenarian’s milestone was in the cards |
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Posted: Thursday, November 5, 2009 5:21 pm
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ST. PETER — Earlier this month Ellen Brown, a resident at Good Samaritan Society Grandview, celebrated her 100th birthday with a party and she almost has as many birthday cards as years of age to prove it.
“I had so many family and friends that I couldn’t count them all, but I do know I got 96 birthday cards and only two of them were alike, which is pretty amazing,” Brown said. “I had a lot of people tell me they had never seen so many people at a birthday party before and I was happy about that.
“I have all 96 of those cards near me in my room and I like to look through them from time to time.”
Brown is a life-long resident of Nicollet County, who along with her late husband Reuben (he passed away in 1981) raised two sons, Leonard and Eldon. Eldon still resides in the area and works for Nicollet County while Leonard is a retired teacher living in Grand Rapids.
She also has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and all of them were on hand along with other family and friends to celebrate her reaching triple digits in age.
While she spent many years on the family farm raising her children and helping out her husband, Brown also became well known working in housekeeping department at Gustavus Adolphus College, retiring after 25 years there in 1974.
“They (Gustavus officials) gave me a rocking chair after I retired, which is still on the family farm where my grandson now lives,” Brown said.
She credits maintaining an active lifestyle, even as she reached the century mark on October 4, as part of the reason why she’s lived so many years but said other factors have come into play as well.
“I really don’t have any big secret, other than just trying to keep busy,” Brown said. “I really enjoy knitting and I continue to knit scarves for Santa Anonymous, which I’ve done for the past 25 years. I used to make mittens and stocking caps, but now I mostly do scarves. It’s good for the mind and also keeps my hands nimble.
“I also stay busy with all the activities they have for us here (Grandview). There always seems like plenty to do. We played ‘Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin’ recently and I got the closest, which was a lot of fun. We also play Bingo on Fridays, which I really enjoy.”
Brown, who was born October 4, 1909, to Nels and Anna (Quick) Johnson, had to learn to keep house at a young age after her mother passed away when Ellen was 13.
“After she died I had to keep house for my dad, my siblings and my grandpa, who lived with us then,” Ellen said. “It was tough at times, but we got through it.”
Ellen’s grandfather lived until age 90 as did one of her aunt’s, so she feels perhaps genetics might have played a role in becoming a centenarian.
“The may have something to do with it, but I never dreamt of being 100,” she said.
Amongst the well wishes she received on her birthday was a card and note of congratulations from U.S. President Barack Obama, a presidential honor traditionally bestowed for someone turning 100 but a nice honor to receive, according to Brown, nonetheless.
“It was very nice for him (the President) to remember me,” Brown said.
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