108-Year-Old is Ready for Vallarta
 Bill Fortier - telegram.com
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June 15, 2009
 |  | Once, about four years ago, Mrs. Gauthier needed medication and the pharmacy
computer thought she was born in 2001 instead of 1901. They said she was too young for such strong medication.
- Edgar A. Gauthier |  | | |
Elizabeth T. Gauthier leaned forward in the chair in the living room of her home in the Rockdale part of Northbridge where she has lived for 50 years and made it perfectly clear she is doing just fine.
"My health is good," she said. "But my hearing is bad."
And that’s not surprising, seeing that she turned 108 June 5.
That’s right, 108 — and plans are already under way for this year’s trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Mrs. Gauthier, who shares her home with her son, Edgar A. Gauthier, a mere 76 years old, was honored with a proclamation recently at a selectmen’s meeting.
"It was an honor," she said.
"This has been more like birth month," said Edgar, who was a French and Latin teacher and head of the upper school at Worcester’s Bancroft School, as well as interim headmaster, before retiring earlier this week.
Mrs. Gauthier has been serenaded by choruses of "Happy Birthday" at many places during the past week or so, including after Mass last weekend at St. Peter’s Parish in Rockdale — or as they say in that part of town, "Rock-a-Dale."
"I don’t miss Mass and I go to all the Holy Days of Obligation," she said proudly.
Mrs. Gauthier also received about six pounds of Godiva chocolate for birthday presents.
"Nobody loves chocolate the way I do," she said.
She broke her hip in November 2007 and uses a walker, and Edgar acknowledges there were, shall we say, some risks involved when surgery was needed to fix the damage. He said he apprised his mother of the risks and she said, "I’ll take my chances. If God wants to bring me home, I’m old enough to go."
Mrs. Gauthier goes to the Valley Beauty Salon in South Grafton every other week, and owner Arlene J. Kasper says she and her other customers are always happy to see her come through the front door.
"She’s an amazing lady,’ said Ms. Kasper. "She’s an inspiration to all of us."
Ms. Kasper said that even though Mrs. Gauthier is 108 she’s still on top of her game.
And so she is.
She voted for the first time in November 1928, after having seen Democratic presidential candidate Al Smith in New York City the month before while on her honeymoon.
When asked who her favorite presidents were, she says Franklin Delano Roosevelt, — primarily, it seems, because of his wife, Eleanor — and JFK.
She was married to her husband, Ulrich, who was a salesman, from 1928 until he died in 1973.
"I had a nice husband. I was with him for 45 years," she said. "I had a nice life with him."
Mrs. Gauthier, according to Edgar, who is her only child, cleans, cooks and is just as active as people who are literally half her age.
She said her advice to anybody who wants to be 108 is to eat a balanced diet that includes a big variety of fruits and vegetables — turnips are her favorite — fish, chicken and no red meat.
She likes an occasional Brandy Alexander and reports that the best one she ever had was in Cairo, Egypt, where real whipped cream was used.
Among other destinations, she and Edgar have been to, China, where they took a trip on the Yangtze River, and Europe, where they took a cruise on the Danube River.
Mrs. Gauthier was only 99 at the time of the Danube trek, and she was crowned queen of the cruise ship.
"I made everybody bow down to me at breakfast," she said with a small smile.
Once, about four years ago, Mrs. Gauthier needed medication and the pharmacy computer thought she was born in 2001 instead of 1901.
"They said she was too young for such strong medication," her son said.
Contact Bill Fortier via email at wfortier(at)telegram.com |
Vallarta Weddings
Travel & Outdoors | June 2009 
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