When Trudie Martin was born, the Wright brothers were still two years away from making their historic flight at Kitty Hawk.
Martin, who was born Oct. 19, 1901, is pleasantly surprised to have made it to 108.
"You live until the Lord calls you home," she said. "I had a good time all my life."
She has lived a life in which the Lord comes first and caring for others comes next. When the kids in the neighborhood were ready for a snack, they knew where to find a slice of freshly baked pound cake. At church, she helped out in the nursery. When people needed someone to sit with a family member in the hospital, she was happy to do it.
She got pulled for speeding the first time at age 75 rushing to take care of someone who was sick.
"She is so caring and giving and generous," said her great-granddaughter Amber Dietz. "I have never known her to be negative about anything," said her daughter, Sue Wright, 66, who shares a house with her mother.
Taking no guff
Martin likes to laugh and remains quite active.
"If anybody says, ‘Go,' she's ready," Wright said.
When it comes to vitamins, Martin isn't interested in the formulation for people older than 50. She uses the "active lifestyle" formula. Those vitamin pills are the only pills Martin takes. She doesn't hear as well as she once did, and she finds that a walker comes in handy. Otherwise, she is in good health. The last time she went to the doctor, he wanted to schedule a routine visit for three months later. Not interested, she said. She would give a call if she needed him.
Her robust health is certainly not the result of a salt-free diet heavy on steamed vegetables. She believes in being generous when salting food and is particularly fond of such country-cooking stables as country ham, greens and pintos.
"I eat anything I want," she said.
Do-it-yourself woman
Every day, she reads her Bible. She reads the newspaper and watches the news on TV, and, when the kitchen floor needs to be mopped, she's the one who mops it. She likes to crochet. When quilts became too heavy to handle, she began crocheting baby blankets. She gave up driving at the age of 92 only because Wright thought it would be a good idea. She likes to travel, and, in 2006, she flew to the Caribbean for Dietz's wedding.
"She's got a swell husband," Martin said.
Martin was born on a tobacco farm in Stokes County -- the ninth of James and Suzanne Tilley's 11 children. When Martin was 11, God found her while she was taking a break from carrying water from a spring to her house. In those days, Nancy Reynolds School went only to the eighth grade. After she finished her schooling, she moved into Winston-Salem and got a job at Hanes Hosiery.
When she saved up enough money, she bought a Ford Model A, and, on weekends, she would drive up N.C. 66, which was a dirt road, to see her family. When looking for a husband, she wanted a man as committed to family as she was. She found him in Ronald Martin, a man she had grown up with.
"He was special," Martin said. "All his life he took care of his momma and daddy. That meant a lot to me. I had a real good husband."
Wright, their first and only child, came along when Martin was 42. Ronald Martin died in 1967 at the age of 71. Martin's last sibling died in 1991. "You wonder why you're left," she said.
She has no shortage of family and friends, though. About 200 people were expected at her birthday celebration yesterday at her church, Calvary Baptist. At last year's celebration, Martin said to Wright that having a big party every year seemed a bit much.
"Why don't you just wait until I'm 110?" she said.
kunderwood@wsjournal.com
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