ROCHESTER – Marguerite Grassie has agreed to meet with this reporter in a year on what would have been her 107th birthday.
She was born in 1918 and celebrated her 106th birthday on August 8th. She still loves her life and enjoys it to the fullest. She has six grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
“I wish I could still dance,” she said. That was the only sad thing she expressed about her life situation. “I loved dancing, but now it’s hard for me.”
Grassie lives at Studley Home in Rochester, a senior living facility where she worked until her “retirement” at age 84.
“She’s a tiny little thing,” said her daughter Annette Plante. “She shows no signs of dementia and she’s never had any body parts removed; she has all of her original body parts.”
Grassie worked the night shift at Studley’s.
“I took care of everyone, and most of the time they were already asleep,” she said. “I set the dinner tables. I folded laundry. I loved it.”
“They love her at Studley’s,” Plante said. “They took her to Hobb’s Harborside restaurant in Wells for her birthday. They took her in a limousine and she drank champagne. She’s the queen there.”
“They take very good care of me,” Grassie said. “They brought me a cake at the restaurant and everyone, even the waitresses, sang to me. When we left, everyone in the restaurant was shouting Happy Birthday to me.”
Grassie raised her family in Dover, Somersworth and Rochester. Before her second retirement from the Studley Home, she worked in the shoe factories in Dover.
She loves the maple squares at Harvey’s Bakery and her favorite color is purple.
Life was simpler when she was growing up, Grassie said. A night out as a teenager meant roller skating at the Humoresque in Rochester.
“In the summer we went roller skating and in the winter we went ice skating,” she said. “I was always at the end of the long line of roller skaters. I loved it.”
She gave her first kiss at 16.
“I don’t remember who it was,” she said.
She was an adult when she got her first television, a small black-and-white model.
“I think my favorite invention is my hearing aid,” she said. “It makes a big difference to me. I don’t know anything about this computer stuff.”
Grassie said the world is moving too fast and is too chaotic these days.
“I wish it were better,” she said. “I wish everyone lived in peace.”
Grassie said her secret to longevity is simple: keep moving. However, she has never flown in an airplane.
“Don’t let the couch control you,” she said. “Keep moving and never stop. I don’t want to stop. I love life.”
Grassie’s three children, Annette, 87, Donald, 80, and Donna, 68, will always be Marguerite’s babies.
“I am their mother,” she said, looking lovingly at her now grown-up children.
“She is a great mother,” said Annette.
“She’s the glue that holds this family together,” Donna said. “I admire her work ethic. I don’t think she’s missed a single day of work in her life.”
“Probably not,” said Grassie.
“She is very special,” said Donald.
It is not difficult to imagine that the birthday date will recur at the same time next year.
