WOMAN’S SECRET TO 105? WALKS, POSITIVITY
Lake Murray’s Lily Emery celebrates her big birthday today with family at home
It’s hard to guess Lily Emery’s age just by looking at her.
It’s even harder to believe the longtime Lake Murray resident is celebrating her 105th birthday today.
In fact, it’s a joke among the family that she almost never discloses her age and oftentimes keeps people guessing.
“She doesn’t say it a lot, but people are amazed when they find out her age,” said Emery’s daughter, Kathy Oatman.
According to granddaughter Sacha Etzel, Emery is healthy, happy and has all of her faculties.
She still reads the newspaper every morning cover to cover, emails her kids and grandkids, and keeps track of her own finances, including paying all of her own bills, Oatman said.
“She’s super smart, with an amazing memory,” Oatman added.
Emery can attest to that, she says, as she remembers where she was when she heard that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died in 1945, or when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and even when she first began to see airplanes flying in the sky as a young child.
“My grandma is amazing,” Etzel said. “She’s got this resilience and strength that I think is just remarkable.”
Born in Rock Springs, Wyo., in 1917, Emery had a coal miner father and stay-at-home mother.
She was the youngest of three, with an older brother and sister, and says much of her childhood consisted of playing outdoors until it was dark.
“At that time, we were able to go out by ourselves,” Emery said.
Every Saturday afternoon, she and a friend would walk to the movie theater, where she recalls tickets cost just 10 cents.
About a year and a half after she
graduated high school, she met Woodrow Emery in a dime store where she worked.
“He was managing a sewing machine shop so he needed supplies for his shop,” she said. “I happened to wait on him. So, the next day he came back for more supplies. And the next day he came back for more supplies. Then, he finally asked me out.”
The couple quickly fell in love and were married five months later in 1936. The Emerys went on to be married for 70 years until Woodrow’s death in 2007. They have two sons and a daughter, nine grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
In 1943, the couple packed up the family and moved to California for what Emery calls “the American Dream.”
Her husband got a job at Naval Air Station North Island, and Emery stayed home to care for the kids, becoming active in all of their extracurriculars.
“She was always involved,” Oatman recalled. “Mom was president of the PTA and Scout leader ... Whenever we’d go on a trip, mom would always be a chaperone.”
After the kids left the nest in 1968, the Emerys bought the Lake Murray home that Lily still lives in today, and it wasn’t long before it became known to family and friends as the “Emery Hotel.”
Toni Stratton, Emery’s caregiver, says Emery has an open-door policy.
“Her family is really important to her,” Stratton said. “She just loves it when any of the kids come visit.”
Etzel has many fond memories of all the family gatherings held at her grandmother’s.
“She was the hostess with the mostest,” Etzel said, chuckling. “She had everybody from the family over for every holiday. And we’d get together and all cook in the kitchen and eat together. It was always just a lot of laughter and fun in her home.”
Emery’s granddaughter Rebecca Clark says she recalls from a young age how loved she felt by “the perfect grandparents,” as she called them.
“Through all the ups and downs of life, grandma’s love has always been the most solid foundation,” Clark said. “When I moved to Kauai and didn’t come back, grandma flew all the way there to check in on me — she was 98. I was going through tough times in life, and it meant the world to me, then and now.”
In retirement, the Emerys became involved with various groups, including an educational group for seniors, travel group, music group and walking club.
The Emerys loved to travel and had the opportunity to see the world together over the years. Emery’s favorite trip was to Scandinavia in the 1980s, particularly her visit to Norway, as she’s part Norwegian and loved to learn more about her heritage.
While she doesn’t travel quite as often these days, she and Oatman, who lives just a few miles away, like to go on drives to see some of the beautiful San Diego County scenery.
“I love road trips — just get in the car and go,” Emery said.
Music was also always a big part of Emery’s life, and she still enjoys going to concerts when possible, including the Spreckels Organ concerts in Balboa Park each Sunday.
Emery doesn’t drink alcohol, nor coffee, but her secret to longevity? Long walks along the shores of Lake Murray, she said.
“It was part of our exercise routine,” Emery said. “We’d walk 3 miles every day for 20 years or more.”
Some of the grandchildren’s best memories are walks with their grandparents around the lake, Oatman said.
Moreover, Etzel attributes her grandmother’s long life to her positivity.
“Her whole goal in life has been to be positive,” she said. “That was really what got her through life.”
At each birthday since she turned 100, Emery says her family and friends say, “We’ll see you next year, and the next year.”
“I didn’t think I’d make it to 105,” she said. “It feels great.”