103-year-old reflects on long life
Published 7:37 am Thursday, August 27, 2009
The rain trickles down on First Drive Northwest in Austin, but Vivian Witham is in a good mood.
Listening to the radio sounds of Carlos Santana and others, she rattles off details of her life, the farm she grew up on, the changes in technology and the time she brought home a puppy her parents weren’t happy about.
Witham is a resident of The Cedars of Austin, an independent and assisted living facility for seniors. She is one of three there who is 100 years old or older, is still in independent living and has lived through 19 presidents.
She turns 104 on Jan. 15.
“I can’t believe it,” Witham says.
Lori Wacek, marketing director for Cedars, can believe it and said that people today are living to see 100 more and more.
“As people are aging in place, there are so many support services to allow them to live in an independent setting,” Wacek says.
According to the 2000 Census, more than 20 percent of Austin’s population was made up of those age 65 or older, more than 8 percent above the state average and 3 percent above the state of Florida, which at the time had the highest rate in the country.
Audrey Hastings, a 71-year-old Austin resident and the daughter of Witham, says she is simply very proud of her mother.
“She was very homey, very kind, very sweet and a good cook,” Hastings says of what life was like growing up. “You’d want your kid to live with her.”
Witham was born in western Minnesota, spent most of her life on a farm in Lake Mills, Iowa, and yes, walked two miles to school everyday.
She went on to be a school teacher and then later a homemaker, having four kids who are all still living.
Living long, full lives comes naturally for Witham’s family.
“Her mom lived to be 97,” Hastings says.
Witham has 12 grandchildren, too many great-grandchildren to count and is also a great-great-grandmother.
When asked about the past, she shares details about cars and the depression.
“It started out with no cars,” she says. “Then Ford was invented and everybody got a Ford. Of course, those who wanted to impress got those other cars.”
Witham’s family drove what most farmers in Northern Iowa drove.
“A Ford,” she says, without hesitation.
During the depression, times were sometimes good and sometimes bad.
“Some were good and some weren’t so good,” she says. “Of course living on the farm we had everything we needed to eat.”
At The Cedars, Witham is well liked by the staff, as are all of the facility’s residents.
“I love her,” says Deb Shaffer, Cedars office manager. “She came down one time and said, ‘I wish people would call me Vavine because I want to know what that sounds like.’ So from now on, I call her Vavine.”
As for Witham, she continues to do what she always does, enjoy life.
“Life has been kind of smooth,” she says.