99 Years Young
Local woman living proof age is only a numberBy SCOTT JOHNSON — sjohnson@lockhaven.com
Article Photos
And it doesn’t hurt to have good genes.
That’s the advice Bernice K. Grieb has for those who want to live a long life.
It’s good advice, too, coming from a woman who turns 99 years old today, and has the health, appearance and mind of a person three decades her junior.
Grieb reminisced about her life while sitting in her favorite chair as son Lynn, 72, and daughter-in-law Jean Grieb looked on.
“I have a lot of aches and pains,” Grieb said, noting she also has macular degeneration, which is affecting her eyesight. But despite a few physical problems, she still takes time every day to do her own housework.
“She’s in excellent health,” Lynn said. “Her mind is excellent.”
In fact, Lynn said Bernice’s doctor, Dr. Charles Ackley, told him his mother has “the skin and the blood pressure of a 70-year-old.”
“He said, ‘It’s unbelievable. Her skin is so soft and nice,’” Lynn said.
When asked to what she attributes her good health, Bernice responded, “I never drank and I never smoked and I always worked hard. Up until I was 90 years old, I mowed my own yard and drove a car.”
Bernice started working at the Woolrich mill when she was 14.
“Then I got married and didn’t work for a few years. Then I went back to work at Woolrich and worked another few years.”
She also worked at the former Sylvania plant in Mill Hall during World War II, making detonators for bombs.
“We didn’t know what we were making until the war was over,” she said.
She retired a few years later to help take care of Lynn, who had been in Elizabethtown Hospital for Crippled Children for six years with osteomyelitis, a bone disease.
“At that time, they were allowed to come and visit me for two hours every other week and she never missed a Sunday to come down and see me in those six years. She was faithful,” Lynn said. “That was during the war when they had to have coupons for gas. Guys at the mill always saw to it that Dad had gas for the car.”
She married her late husband Donald on Oct. 19, 1928 and they moved to Lamar. She later moved to Lock Haven before settling to Flemington about 70 years ago.
Donald, who worked at the Lock Haven paper mill, passed away in August of 1983 after nearly 55 years of marriage, Bernice said.
Bernice seems to have a genetic predisposition for a long life. She said she’s the last surviving member of an immediate family of 11 siblings. A sister, Phyllis, lived until she was 94; a brother, Skip, lived to age 90 and an aunt, Bertha, lived to 97.
Another reason for Bernice’s long life? Her love of sweets, her son says.
“She eats anything and everything,” Lynn said.
“I love candy and nuts,” Bernice said, acknowledging candy as her one vice. “I like all that sweet stuff.”
Grieb was born Monday, March 8, 1909, the year the pop-up toaster was invented. In those days, the price of bread that was was a mere nickel, while two pennies would buy a first-class stamp. A lot has changed in the world during the nearly a century since Bernice first entered the world.
The biggest change, Bernice said, is the prices. She remembers, vividly, buying a pack of pork chops many years ago for 10 cents a pound.
“I got these pork chops one night and they were 10 cents a pound and I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “But, that was a long, long time ago... that was 73 years ago.
Bernice said her family didn’t have a car when she was growing up, but she bought a Ford sedan when she turned 16, and has only had a few “fender-benders” since.
“We had to crank it to get it started,” she said. “We didn’t have to all the time, unless it wouldn’t start, then we had to crank it.”
Bernice also remembers that she and her husband didn’t have a refrigerator when they were first married. Instead, they had an icebox.
“We put a hunk of ice in and it melted in a couple of days and the ice man would come and give us another hunk,” she said. “I canned a lot and made a lot of canned jelly.”
Lynn noted his mother taught his wife, Jean, how to cook.
“She was an excellent cook. She made very good pies, cakes...,” he said.
“She made the best stuffed chicken I ever ate,” Jean added.
Besides the two world wars, Bernice has also lived through The Great Depression, which started with the stock market crash of 1929.
“We didn’t have much work,” she said. “They only had a few days of work. My husband worked at the paper mill and it was pretty tough, but we got through it.” Despite her sharp mind, however, there was one incident in particular that Bernice was hesitant to talk about. It involved a bit of trouble she got into when she was a school girl. When Lynn and Jean informed her that the statue of limitations had probably run out on the incident in question, Bernice proceeded.
“My teacher sent a note home with my sister to give to my mother,” Bernice recalls. “On the way home, I said to my sister, ‘What’s in there?’ She said, ‘I don’t know.’ I took it and read it and tore it up and threw it away. My mother never did get the note. She never found out until years and years later when I told her.”
Other memories she has of her childhood are playing baseball at recess “with the boys,” and sled riding.
“One friend would drag the toboggan up the top of the hill and we would ride down and he would drag us back up,” Bernice said. “That was fun, until my dad found out we were riding on a toboggan behind a car and he put a stop to it.”
In addition to being the oldest person in Flemington, Bernice is also the oldest living member of the four-church Nittany Valley Charge, with a membership at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Route 64 outside of Mill Hall for over 50 years.
While her long life continues, Bernice acknowledges her worst fear is she will outlive her children. Already, she has outlived one daughter, Joan Hoffman, who died in 1995, and a granddaughter, Gayle, who died in a car wreck a few years earlier.
“When I lost my granddaughter, it was like I lost one of my children. Then only about three years later Joan got cancer and she died,” Bernice said. “That’s really been hard on me because I miss her like crazy.” She does have three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren with “one on the way.”
Bernice said she never thought she would see 99, as she was near death a couple of times, “but I came out.”
She had a stint placed in her heart to open up her arteries 11 years ago.
“The doctor said to her, ‘You could die.’ Well, she said back to him, ‘We’re all going to die.’ He said, ‘You’ll be fine,’ Lynn said.
Bernice said she is looking forward to reaching the century mark next year, especially for the party.
“The last party they had was when I turned 90 and I said, ‘Well, goodbye folks. I’ll see you in 10 years. I’ve made it to nine. I’ve got one more year to go. I don’t know whether I’ll make it or not.”
Lynn said he and his wife had planned to take Bernice out for dinner yesterday, but the family didn’t have any big plans for today.
One thing definitely not in the cards: A wild, hip-swiveling night out on the town doing the cha-cha and Charleston.
“My dancing days are over,” Bernice said.
