EVERETT — It all started with an email from Dave Anderson inviting me to meet his “very mentally sharp friend Mary Ann Karber.”
The subject line: “101-year-old lady.”
Uh-oh. Red flag.
What’s up with that?
You write one story about a 101-year-old and suddenly you’re flooded with requests to write about 101 more — every single one of them “very mentally sharp,” of course.
An estimated 100,000 Americans are in Mary Ann’s age bracket, and the elite club keeps growing. The number of people 100 years-plus is predicted to quadruple to over 400,000 by 2055.
Dave was persuasive about Mary Ann.
“She has some great stories from 1947-48 about her time in China as a young wife helping farmers with her husband,” he wrote. “I’ll arrange for you to come interview her over lunch in our wonderful dining room here at Washington Oakes.”
Wait, did he say wonderful dining room? Sold!
I warned Dave not to count on a story. Too risky — the centenarian floodgates would open.
“I just want you to meet her,” he said.
Turns out Mary Ann and Dave, who is 25 years her junior, are swinging seniors when it comes to lunch partners.
“We sit with different people,” Dave said. “It’s the culture of friendliness here.”
Mary Ann, a widow, eats with her lady friends at the evening meal. Married man Dave usually dines with his wife.
Washington Oakes, originally built as an elementary school in 1908, was transformed into a retirement community in 1988. Inside the historic red brick building at 1717 Rockefeller Ave., Mary Ann uses a walker to stroll the carpeted halls that once rang with the footsteps of schoolchildren — including her own in the 1950s.
These days, the menu is far from school cafeteria food. The lunch spread rivaled that of a restaurant, with choices like a jumbo chicken-bacon-ranch wrap, blue cheese tomato bisque and espresso almond fudge ice cream.
At her age, Mary Ann can eat like there’s no tomorrow, but she went for a peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread. For dessert: a very green banana, to go. (Comedian George Burns was way younger when he quipped: “I’m so old, I don’t buy green bananas.”)
Dave, being a growing boy of 76, loaded up with the soup, chicken wrap and ice cream.
He’s one of the younger residents at Washington Oakes.
“They call me ‘the kid,’” he said.
Mary Ann has children older than him.
The guy at the next lunch table, Ray Solie, was also 101.
“I’m six months older than him,” Mary Ann said.
“She lords it over me,” Ray said.
In this friendly competition, he wins in other ways. Fewer men than women make it to that age — and he’s a World War II veteran, to boot.
Male life expectancy is 74.8 years. (Go Dave!)
Mary Ann beat the charts for women, 80.2 years. She’ll be 102 on June 3.
She doesn’t think of herself as old. “I have history,” she said.
Some people wonder – and worry – about life in retirement homes. My dad referred to them as “jail cells” when he quit driving and I suggested he and my mom sell their ancient house with the big yard.
My dad would have loved Washington Oakes, especially the meals and opportunities to win coupons for a free lunch.
Dave covered my lunch with a ticket he won the previous day playing Wii Bowling in the rec room.
“I have a pocket full of tickets,” he said. I wondered how many other reporters he invited to meet Mary Ann.
He attends morning exercise classes geared to prevent falls. “That’s the f-word around here,” Dave said.
Mary Ann starts her day working a crossword puzzle in her spacious apartment with a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms in the assisted living quarters.
She enjoys life without demanding chores.
“Been there, done that,” Mary Ann said.
She told about being a working mom, taking college classes and raising a family, all at once.
Before that, as a newlywed, she left her comfy life to serve with her husband in rural China with the Mennonite Central Committee.
“I had a telephone, central heat and running water … and then I went to China,” she said. “We lived with a group, and when we wanted to take a shower, we had a pail with holes on the bottom. If you wanted to wash your hair, you had to finish fast.”
Her first child was born there in 1948. As she terms the baby girl: “I have a nice souvenir from China.”
The couple served in the Philippines a few years later. The “souvenir” she brought back this time was still in the oven and born upon their return to the U.S.
The next mission was in Mexico: “I was pregnant, and there I got another souvenir,” she said.
Back in Washington, Mary Ann was a first-grade teacher at Hawthorne Elementary in Everett. She can still rattle off the names of her former students and fondly recall their hugs as they lined up to leave for the day.
She and her husband, who taught sociology at Everett Community College, were married for 71 years. His name was David, hence her fondness for Daves. After his death in 2017, she moved to Washington Oakes.
“I lived alone and I was so lonely. You’re not lonesome here,” she said. Family members visit often.
After lunch, it was time for Wheel of Fortune, two floors up in the game room, with an actual wheel and host. This was real life, not TV.
“Mary Ann is quite good,” Dave said. “I am not too bad.”
I joined the crowd of 12 for the pre-game kickoff with trivia questions. The vibe was more rowdy pub quiz than sleepy retirement home.
Then things got serious. Four players in a round faced off to spin the wheel, with activities employee Lorne Dalgleish, the next best thing to Vanna White, working the letter whiteboard. Prizes were Safeway gift cards or lunch tickets.
The first puzzle was a lyric from a Mamas & the Papas song that a young man in his 80s solved before Mary Ann.
She nailed the next one: “All About Eve. Bette Davis. Anne Baxter.”
I left before the game ended. I needed a nap.
Got a story for “What’s Up With That?” Hit me up at reporterbrown@gmail.com or 425-422-7598.
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