Sadie Galego does 30-minute workouts at the Y, travels and lives independently and hopefully.
By DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD, Times Staff Writer
Published June 16, 2005
LARGO - As Sadie Galego stepped off the bus Tuesday for her 105th birthday party, she turned to her friend.
"You know," she said, "it's just like a wedding.
"Do you think there's a man in there for me?"
The always-on-the-go birthday girl was taking a break from her regimen of cardio workouts and social activities to celebrate another year of life. As the crowd finished her birthday song, Galego grabbed a knife and punched out a series of neat squares of cake for those who came to honor her.
Among the revelers were friends, exercise partners and faculty members from the Bardmoor YMCA in Largo, where she is the oldest member and works out three times a week.
Galego thrives on those 30-minute workouts. She is so fit she once astonished a much younger member by hopping onto an abdominal cruncher.
At the Barrington in Largo, where Galego has an apartment, she loves playing the card game Skip-Bo, attending mystery dinners and spoiling her cat, Lucky, said activities director Jeanie Fowler.
"She does whatever her little heart desires," Fowler said. "She lives without any assistance. She is very independent."
A seasoned traveler, Galego left Wednesday for a monthlong journey to New England to visit friends and her 95-year-old sister in Maine. She has also traveled to England, Ireland, Egypt, Palestine and Israel.
The YMCA's Jill Lawrence helped organize the party and had worried Galego's trip might interfere with the soiree.
"We had to remind her about the party, because you never know where she is going to be," Lawrence said.
At the party, workout partner Vernon Cummings, 79, of Largo played on a harmonica a series of songs spanning Galego's life. YMCA employee Aramist Thomas crooned Young at Heart to Galego and the swaying crowd.
Friends lined up to shower Galego with hugs, cards and flowers. The well-wishers included Frances Scott, 84, of North Redington Beach, who often ferries Galego to lunch dates and on errands.
"It's a lot of fun to take her out," Scott said. "She stuffs down the food."
Galego is loved by all because she loves everyone, Lawrence said.
"She grew up in a time of great turmoil," Lawrence said. "But she doesn't have a prejudiced bone in her body."
She was baptized in the Jordan River in 1972, held a driver's license until she was 103, earned a master's degree in education and taught for 50 years. Her first teaching job was in a one-room schoolhouse in Maine, where she often made the children mashed potatoes and hot chocolate. She still keeps in touch with some of her students, many of whom are now great-great-grandparents. She also opened a beauty shop and was a home health aide.
She married for the first time at 85 and has outlived her husband.
Jamie Bruning, executive director of the Bardmoor YMCA, took a moment to reflect on Galego's life and those she has touched.
"It is life affirming to see and witness her because she demonstrates who we would all like to be in old age," Bruning said. "She touches people of all different ages. She exercises. She says "hi' to people and she remembers names. This is someone whose mind is not gone.
"This is her day," he said, "but it is also about us because we all have a short time on this Earth, and Sadie is proof that it might not be so short after all."
Bruning concluded by reading a poem, The Elderly Prayer, which Galego wrote when she became a centenarian in 2000:
I've reached 100 and there's so much I have not done,
I hope, Dear Lord, you will let me live until I am 101.
But then, if I haven't finished all I want to do
Would you let me stay a while, until I am 102?
I am very grateful, you've been very good to me,
But do you think, you could manage to make it 103?
The world is changing very fast, there is much in store,
I'd sure like, so very much, to live till I'm 104.
And if by then I'm still alive, I'd like to live till I'm 105.
