Esther Friberg said she wasn’t sure of the exact secret to reaching the age of 101, soon to be 102.
“I’m just a sturdy Swede,” she said with a smile Sunday.
She sat alongside two other honorees who were being celebrated at the Cascade Inn retirement and assisted-living home in Vancouver.
In all, five women who live at Cascade Inn are on track to turn 100 or older this year, the facility’s director of activities, Kathi Walko, said during the women’s birthday party. Two of those women, Florence Brighton, 103, and Katie Meyer, 99, were unable to attend for health reasons, Walko said.
In Friberg’s case, she’ll turn 102 on March 1. The longtime Portland resident and mother of three said she plans to celebrate the day with her daughter, who couldn’t attend the party on Sunday. Friberg was decked out in a purple birthday necklace and a party headband complete with a white feather and a flower made of golden ribbon.
“If my kids could just see me now,” she said.
She’s not the only one in her family to reach the milestone, she added. Her grandmother lived to be 100 in Sweden.
Friberg’s advice for others is to accept things the way they are, keep active, go places and take part in life and church, Walko told the group of about 30 residents at the party in the facility’s dining hall.
Wilma Zillman’s 100th birthday is May 10. The longtime Illinois resident said the secret to her longevity is to have good genes, be social and “just try to be healthy.”
Walko told the crowd that Zillman also “exercises that brain of hers” by avidly partaking in crosswords and other puzzles.
“I hope to have her spunk when I’m within 25 years of her,” said Solway Mickelson, who attends Trinity Lutheran Church in Vancouver with Zillman. “She’s just a hoot and so fun to be around.”
Dolly Anders’ 104th birthday is April 1. For her 100th birthday, she received a letter from Barack and Michelle Obama, Walko said. “I think that is a very significant thing to have gained in her lifetime.”
Anders, a longtime Camas resident and a mother of five, completely lost her hearing about a month ago and wasn’t in a talkative mood on Sunday, said her daughter, Pat Harness. But her mother was still having a good time, looking around and taking in the events of the party, Harness added.
“I think it’s amazing,” Harness said of her mother’s age. “She’s always been not a junk food eater at all. She’s never smoked, never drank.”
Anders was never interested in exercising, either, though she did bowl for many years, Harness said.
The three women of honor — or “queens for the day,” as Walko called them — were treated to cake, punch and well-wishes from their fellow Cascade Inn residents as a pianist played in the background.
The women represent a combined 306 years of life well lived, Walko said.
