Posted on 02/07/2010 3:39:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
Meet the Big Apple's 111-year-old wonder.
Jane Gilsenan has touched three centuries, lived under 19 US presidents and witnessed some of the greatest moments in history. She is New York City's oldest living resident, according to experts, and one of the oldest people in the world.
"I'm lucky to live as long as I have so far," the super-centenarian said last week at her home in a Staten Island convent. "I had nothing to do with it. It was wished on me."
Gilsenan was born at Amsterdam Avenue and 98th Street in Manhattan on May 8, 1898, at the same time Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were galloping up the San Juan Heights in the Spanish-American War.
The second oldest of six siblings, Gilsenan was raised by Irish-immigrant parents in a two-bedroom Upper West Side apartment they rented for about $16 a month.
Her father worked for Macy's and her mother, a cook for the owners of the New York Herald Tribune, once made a meal for Mark Twain.
Her memories date back to when she was 10.
"I remember learning to skate by holding the railing at St. Michael's Church [in Manhattan] and skipping rope," she said.
She's similarly sharp with details on the following 10 decades. She can recall the belt-tightening during the Great Depression and her brothers serving in World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Read this story today in the NY Post. God bless this old gal! The things she has seen over her life time. More and more I look to the Greatest Generation and those much older than myself if for nothing else then their wisdom or their simple steadfastness and faith in God they seem to exhibit no matter what life sends our way.
I would love so to spend an hour with her, asking her questions about growing up in NYC at the turn of the century...There are so few left with these memories.
Here childhood memories are about 1910. Can you imagine?
Wow!
But if she has any longevity secrets, Gilsenan isn't telling. "I have none, and I wouldn't give them away because I wouldn't wish it on anybody," she said. "I can't say I regret it, but I wouldn't want to do this again."
Something to keep in mind
There are lots of things I’ve enjoyed doing once—but wouldn’t want to do again. Still, it does almost sound as if people shouldn’t recklessly wish themselves a life beyond, say, a sold 105 years.
ping
I’ll be happy if I make it to 90 with all my marbles.
The triangle factory fire for one...
I could care less about NYC, but I agree her perspective is unique....from not much after the birth of manual typewriters to cell phones with orders of magnitude more computing power than the moon landing.
From airplanes being interesting sideshows to space shuttles.
And common disease (or minor injury) being terminal, to modern medicine.
Of course, it also went from self-reliance to “cradle-to-grave” welfare, so it’s not all good.
The point of view from a major city, especially a major immigrant point like NYC would be different than what rural folk say. Did you ever read A Tree Goes in Brooklyn?
Thanks nick. Oh, and I’d hit it. :’)
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