So how does it feel to be 102?
“OK,” she said in an upbeat voice.
She’ll turn 103 Sept. 15.
Preserved in time
Stepping into the Coal Creek Library is like stepping back in time. From the potbellied stove in the back to the handcrafted real wood shelves, it is substantially the same today as it was 100 years ago.
There are 3,790 books there. Smith knows. She’s counted them.
Coal Creek is no longer an active public library. It functions more as a museum and is open Sunday afternoons, April to October. If you go on Sundays you can meet her. She’s the white-haired woman with the welcoming smile. She might be sitting in a chair talking with her son or straightening up.
If she’s up to it she can show you the library’s collection of historical books. They sit under a glass case on a wooden table. There’s English Traits by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1856), Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1854), An Overland Journey From New York to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859 by Horace Greeley (1860) and many more.
In many ways the library is one of the only things Smith has left besides her son. Smith’s husband, Cecil, died in the 1980s. Her three younger sisters, Anne, Katharine and Edith, all died before her, as did most all her friends.
Besides her work at the library, Smith has dedicated her life to making things better in her community. For years she walked with ski poles and picked up trash on the side of the road by where she lived. Later, after switching to a walker, she continued to patrol the roads, collecting aluminum cans.
Today she is just happy for each new day. She never expected to live this long. After all, the average life expectancy for a woman born in 1905 is 50 years.
Smith has more than doubled that.
Her secret: She eats lots of fruits and vegetables and still walks six blocks every day. Oh, yeah, she also went to the chiropractor every two weeks for the last 50 years.
And she gave up gravy.
So, any advice for anyone wanting to lead a worthwhile life?
She leaned in.
“John Wesley’s motto,” she said in a small voice, paraphrasing a quote attributed to the Methodist founder. “Do all the good that you can to all the people that you can by all the ways that you can and by all means that you can as long as ever you can.”
And, finally — what would Smith like people to remember about her?
A small smile sneaks across her face as she thinks in silence for half a minute before answering.
“That I was cheerful,” she said.
To reach James A. Fussell, call 816-234-4460 or send e-mail to jfussell@kcstar.com.
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