ESCONDIDO: Woman celebrates 107th birthday with family, friends

Long life has no secret, Gladys Holm says

By JOHN RAIFSNIDER - For the North County Times | Wednesday, August 27, 2008 7:28 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Want advice on how to live to be 100, or more specifically, 107? Don't ask Gladys Holm. Even her family and friends won't ask. They already know better.

"I don't give any advice to my friends or to others," said Holm, as she sat at the head table of a local restaurant Wednesday surrounded by two dozen well-wishers. "I don't feel capable of doing that; besides, I want to keep them as friends."

The group gathered to help Holm celebrate her 107th birthday, and those sitting closest to her chuckled at a question of how to live long ---- they already knew she had nothing to share. Even Holm's 102-year-old friend, Mary McCarthy, who knows a thing or two about growing old, had to laugh.

"She's not going to tell anyone any secrets," McCarthy said.

Growing up in the right part of the country, Holm said, might have something to do with growing old gracefully.

"I think I was born in the right place, in southern Minnesota, on a farm where we grew all of our own vegetables," Holm said. "That part of the country, they say, has the richest soil and I think that had something to do with it, I really do. I think it gave me a good start."

Good genes might have also played a part. All of Holm's four siblings lived well into their 90s, she said. The first major health issue that Holm faced was when she fell and broke her hip ---- she was 100.

"It is amazing that she's 107, and that she is in such good health," said Sandra Elliott, Holm's granddaughter-in-law. "She lives by herself and takes care of herself. She's very independent.

"When she broke her hip, that kind of convinced her to stop driving, but other than that, she has remained really healthy," Elliott said. "She doesn't take any medications, and she doesn't even take vitamins."

"My health has been good and I've had wonderful friends ---- life is good," said Holm. "I gave up driving, but not because I couldn't drive, and not because I couldn't get a 100 on the driving test. I gave up driving when I got a walker, and my family thought it would be best if I didn't drive anymore. However, I did renew my driver's license after I turned 100."

Holm said the most significant invention in her lifetime was the airplane, and her fondest memory was of her first cross-county flight.

"Those airplanes began carrying the mail first, and then they started carrying passengers," recalled Holm, who remained a world traveler into her 90s.

"Whenever they started carrying people, I was right there lining up. I was on one of the earliest flights, and I flew across the country and back in those days, that was quite a feat." Holm said she was grateful for her family and friends who came to celebrate her 107th birthday, and for her long life.

"My family and all these people here have been so good for me, they're wonderful to me," she said. "I have had good luck with my health, too, so I don't feel like I've missed out on anything."