Faith and Breakfast

Grace Albrecht, left, and Mary Margaret Abernathy, both are centenarians living at Saxony Village in Cape Girardeau, pose for a photo March 14, 2018.

Fred Lynch ~ Southeast Missourian

Cape Girardeau centenarians share their secrets of living to be 100

The Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, World War II. The Civil Rights Movement, the first person in space, the Vietnam War. The widespread use of the internet, 9/11, the advent of the smartphone.

Those are just some of the eras during which Mary Margaret Abernathy and Grace Albrecht, centenarians at Saxony Village in Cape Girardeau, have lived.

The women were born in 1918; Albrecht turned 100 on March 1, and Abernathy will turn a century old November 25. Both women still live independently.

“It’s quite a deal,” Abernathy says of turning 100.

“I don’t notice a difference,” notes Albrecht. “It’s just like any other birthday. That’s the way I’d say that.”

How To Get to 100

Both Abernathy and Albrecht are in good physical and mental health — Abernathy drove until she was 95 years old, and Albrecht until she was 96.

Taking care of oneself by exercising, being well-integrated into a family or other community and moderating sugar, meat, caffeine and alcohol intake are all important components to reaching the 100-year milestone, according to the Huffington Post’s article “100 Wonderful Ways to Live to 100.”

Beyond the physical aspects, inner personal qualities and attitudes are important, too. Stubbornness, resilience and adaptability to change also help one to live for an entire century, Amanda Macmillan reports in the TIME article “People who live to 100 have these traits in common.”

This 2017 study Macmillan cites studied the Cilento region of Italy, an area with an uncommonly high percentage of residents aged 90 to 101. “Positivity, a strong work ethic and close bonds with family, religion and the countryside” were important factors in these people’s lives, the study published in International Psychogeriatrics concluded.

Macmillan notes, “Most of the older adults in the study were still active, working regularly in their homes and on their land. This gave them a purpose in life.”

Changing Times

Abernathy and Albrecht have accomplished much so far in their lives, and seen many changes in our world.

Abernathy was born in Parma, Missouri, and remembers the first time she rode in a car, a 1924 Model T her father brought home. When they ran out of gas after taking a few test drives with the family — there were no gas stations close by — they had to call on a time-tested, reliable method to remedy the situation: gas was brought to the car using a horse and wagon.

To get to college at Central Methodist University where she received her bachelor’s degree in music, Abernathy traveled from Parma to Fayette, Missouri, by train. The trip took two days. By the time the train arrived in St. Louis, where Abernathy could transfer to a train headed west, she says there were about 20 students from Southeast Missouri headed to her college on the train with her.

“We had a good time,” she recalls. “We felt like we were friends already.”

Abernathy became a music teacher and married Jim Abernathy, who worked with a highway construction company, in June 1941. The two moved to Mineral Wells, Texas, for two years while Jim served as a tech sergeant in the Army during World War II. After this, they decided to move back home to Sikeston, Missouri, where her father owned land.

“We decided we would build a house on the farm and live there the rest of our married life,” Abernathy says.

They lived there for 60 years, until they moved to Saxony Village in Cape Girardeau. The couple had two daughters, both of whom are also retired teachers.

Albrecht, too, comes from a farming family.

Albrecht spent her childhood days on the farm her grandpa and father grew up on, in Fayette County, Illinois, the second oldest of six children. While her older sister helped her mother with the cooking, Albrecht spent her time on the farm with her father, who had the largest farm in the area. They raised wheat and alfalfa hay.

“I was the lucky one and got to go outdoors where I wanted to be,” Albrecht says. “I always was the outdoor person and always helped in the fields. So, I was dad’s hired man.”

Due to an accident in the field that left Albrecht with a heel injury and limited mobility for a time, her parents thought it was important that she finish high school. Because there was no transportation to school from the rural area, Albrecht moved 15 miles from her family’s farm to live in town with her grandmother. Immediately after high school, she got an office job.

“By that time, I fell in love and got married and moved out,” Albrecht recalls.

Her future husband, Hilmer Albrecht, attended the country church that neighbored Albrecht’s own. After they were married, the couple moved to Rockford, Illinois, for a year, and then to Sparta, Illinois, where Hilmer got a job managing a farm co-op. They had three children. The Albrechts moved to Cape Girardeau in 2005 to be closer to their youngest daughter, Lynne, who lived in the city.

Their Secrets

Abernathy’s oldest daughter Nancy Haertling, a resident of Jackson, finds activeness to be key in her own mother’s success of living to be 100.

“I think both of these ladies are interested in a lot of things,” says Haertling of Abernathy and Albrecht. “They continue to be interested in life. They read the paper and they know what’s going on. Mother continues to vote.”

These women cite faith and their families as the most important facets of life, and as the paths to happiness.

Their advice on living to be 100?

“I don’t think I can give any advice, we just have to leave it to the good Lord,” Albrecht says. “We don’t have a thing to do with it.”

“I’ve always eaten three meals a day,” Abernathy adds. “I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not. My mother always [insisted] we had to eat breakfast, whether we wanted to or not. I’ve just always eaten breakfast, too, as well as the other two meals.”

There it is — faith and breakfast. Sounds like a plan.