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She's lived a good life, as well as a very long one

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published February 14, 2006

When Catherine Lowe was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 13, 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, the trust buster, hadn't yet ridden in an automobile.

The suffragettes were big news. Catherine's mother couldn't vote yet.

The first movie theater had yet to open. Imagine, Cuba was still a colony of the United States.

The bookends of Catherine Lowe's life stretch way back. But she's enjoying that final chapter. She's not missing a minute of it.

On Monday, friends and staff members at the Summerville at New Port Richey assisted living facility celebrated with Mrs. Lowe on her 104th birthday.

For the day, she dreamed of being younger. "I'm 85," she quipped. Who was going to argue?

"I've enjoyed it all."

She's only 5-foot-2 and fits snugly in her wheelchair. On her birthday she wore a green sweater, pants, sneakers and socks. A knitted lap blanket covered her to keep her warm as she sat with others in the activity room.

A friend did her hair. Her nails were painted a gutsy pink. She sang a cappella with the small group: Raindrops keep falling on my head...

There aren't many rainy days in Mrs. Lowe's life. She's always upbeat, the Summerville staff says.

For her birthday, she wanted simple gifts: grapefruits; a vanilla ice cream sundae.

"I don't care what's on it. I just like it all."

She also asked for a good book. She got Danielle Steel's The Cottage .

A good book is better than a man, she'd said. The book lasts longer.

When you live this long, you're an expert on longevity. It may be cliche, but she takes each day as it comes. She credits her sturdy parents - an Irish mother and a German father. It helps to have good habits when you're young. She loved to go swimming in the lakes in her native Buffalo.

She doesn't recall ever being sick enough to be admitted to a hospital. She gave birth to her son at home in 1921, which wasn't unusual for women at the time.

Her eyesight is in great shape. She wears glasses but reads fine print books. She loves Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts.

She doesn't wear a hearing aid. You don't need to shout when you're talking to her. But you have to listen. You'll get no long-winded explanations, just plenty of wit. The radio is much more fun than the TV, she says. She grew up hearing big bands on the radio.

Her fingers are nimble enough to knit booties for her neighbors at Summerville.

She's an independent-minded woman. She lived on her own at River Bend mobile home park in Port Richey until she was about 98. Before that she lived in the house she and her husband bought when they moved to Florida in the 1950s. They met at a park in Buffalo where she went to hear a band concert. He took her and a friend for a ride in his canoe. They went for a date the next weekend. That was in the summer. They married the following February, in 1921. Their only child Charles Thomas was born the following October.

Charles Maurice, her husband of 47 years, died almost 40 years ago. Her son was killed in a car accident in France near the end of World War II. She recalls going into shock when she heard the news.

He's gone now, but there's no forgetting his face. She keeps his black and white baby picture in her room. She has two framed photos of young Charles in an Army uniform.

She also keeps pictures of the family dogs - Gypsie and Dottie. And then there's a black and white unframed picture of her and her husband. Mrs. Lowe is seated in a lawn chair. He's standing next to her. Both are smiling. A dog sits at their feet. The lake is in the background. An idyllic time.

"I've had a good life."

A long life.

Mrs. Lowe is in good company. Thanks to a combination of good genes and modern medicine, Americans are living longer.

In 2004, Florida had 5,914 centenarians. That's about 2,000 more than were reported four years earlier.

It's hard to imagine many of them in any better condition than Mrs. Lowe.

--Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 14, 2006, 08:40:34]