Born March 21, 1911, in Moose Lake, Minn., Anna doesn't look her 100
years.
Anna grew up in Moose Lake, a small community about 40 miles from
Duluth, graduating from high school there. She moved to Chicago to
study at Moody Bible Institute and worked at the First National Bank
of Chicago.
After a short time, she moved back to the Duluth area and married
a minister named Charles "C.W." Since they had both grown up in
small towns, they requested a country church. They were soon
introduced to the Presbyterian churches in Middletown, Sweetwater
and Irish Grove, where they stayed for 28 years.
C.W. died in 1976, prompting Anna to move to Springfield. While
there, she took a job at a Christian bookstore, which brought some
unwanted and unexpected excitement in her life. One day, returning
from a break, she interrupted a robbery and was shot in the leg,
shattering it.
"For the next 20 years, she was my farming guide," her son, Phil,
jokes. "She'd call me and say, ‘I hope you're done in the fields
'cause it is raining tomorrow -- my leg is killing me.'"
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A lot of joking goes on between the mother and her son. At a
break during her birthday party on Sunday, she ponders their
relationship.
"You have to have fun," she says. "That's what it takes to live
long." A few minutes later, however, she's changed her mind. "Just
take life one day at a time. That's the secret." And it must be.
But we'll ask her again next year, at her 101st. Just to be sure.
[By JO HILLIARD]
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