MARIETTA, Ga. (WANF/Gray News) – A Georgia woman was celebrated by her senior living community as she reached her milestone 107th birthday.
Lillian Mortimer is here to set the record straight on what being 107 is like.
“Enjoy the activities, enjoy the pool, do what you can. It has been a very good life,” she said.
Mortimer said she loves the pool at Sterling Estates, a senior living community in Marietta. She has been using the pool regularly to help her healing process after she fell and broke her hip.
“I have had three or four surgeries, all of which could’ve been fatal and I survived them,” she said. “The last was colon cancer. Apparently, I am a survivor.”
Mortimer was born in New Jersey.
“We got through the Depression, just like everybody else which was poor, we got through the war, which everybody was in that too, and that is when I got married,” she said.
Mortimer’s husband died when she was in her 70s. She keeps photos of him in her apartment.
Despite her age, Mortimer’s memory is sharp and her jokes are as funny as ever. She’s also still mobile. She said keeping healthy is how she has continued to stay active.
“I used to say chocolate candy, I don’t say that anymore. I just say that I have done my part in trying to stay healthy,” Mortimer said on her secret to a long life.
Mortimer’s friends gathered on Thursday to help her celebrate her milestone birthday. They said they had an art class themed after Mortimer, where everything came from 1917.
“It is hard to understand where the years have gone, and that anyone can actually live this long and be able to enjoy life the way life is,” Mortimer said.
Mortimer is not the only centenarian at Sterling Estates. A woman named Joyce will be turning 104 years old at the end of February.
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