Published: November 03, 2007 10:27 pm            

104-year-old says Jesus is key to her longevity

LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Recalling 104 years of longevity with ease, Clarice Hedrick Vest sits in her wheelchair beside her daughter Georgia and chuckles when asked of her first memory in life.

Born Oct. 30, 1903, Vest grew up on a farm in Summers County near Jumping Branch.

Vest would eventually marry and move to Max-welton in Greenbrier County, where her husband Cody was postmaster and operated a general store. She has remained in Greenbrier County.

“I know I was exactly 3 years old because there wasn’t quite three years between my next brother and me. It was a cold Christmas day and we were sitting around the fireplace and the baby was laying on the bed in the back of the room,” Vest recalled. “My father came out with a false face on and a bag over his shoulder and I remember him saying, ‘Here’s a red ball for the baby.’ I couldn’t figure out how Santa Claus knew we had a baby.”

The world Vest was born into bears little resemblance to today’s fast-paced society.

At that time, the federal government had a budget of only $500 million, unemployment was at 3.9 percent and the cost of a first-class stamp was 2 cents. That year, Henry Ford organized Ford Motor Co. and the Wright Brothers made aviation history by flying the first plane at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

“When I was a child and things were happening in Europe, we didn’t know about them for over a month,” said Vest, who added she began reading the Raleigh Register in her teens. “Now you know about things in seconds.”

Vest continues to keep up with the latest news each day, and although she has yet to surf the Internet, her daughter Georgia said she prints out e-mails for her mother to read.

Vest also remembers the family’s first vehicle, bought in 1915 by her father for $250. Prior to that purchase, the family relied on farm horses for transportation.

“My father once road horseback five miles into town to buy me a watch when I was 11 years old,” Vest said. “Girls didn’t really wear watches then. I remember putting it on my arm and waking up and just looking at my watch.”

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Vest grew up with two brothers and two sisters; she is the only living sibling. One brother lived until his early 90s, but no one approached the century mark that Vest toppled four years ago.

“I was the runt of the family and the skinniest one, too,” she laughed.

She and her husband were married for 69 years; Cody passed in 1999. Vest was also postmaster in Maxwelton, and their mom-and-pop general store continued operating well into the 1990s.

“I got married in 1930 and raised three children. I have seven grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild,” Vest said with a smile.

Her oldest son Eugene is 72. Her two daughters, Mary Alice Yates and Georgia Clemens, are 66 and 61, respectively. Many of her family members traveled to Greenbrier County for her birthday celebration last week. Clemens visits with her mother often and lives just outside Lewisburg.

In 2001, Vest began living at The Seasons, an assisted and independent living community in Lewisburg. To pass time, she began knitting washcloths for friends and family. Knitting became a passion for Vest and she has knitted and given away thousands of her washcloths.

“I can’t imagine how much yarn everyone has brought here,” Clemens said. “She made them and wants people to use them.”

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Her hearing and vision have diminished of late, but aside from a few broken bones and help from an oxygen tank, her mother’s health is excellent, Clemens said.

When asked what her key to longevity was, Vest resolutely said it was her faith in Jesus Christ. Vest reads a chapter of her Bible every day, a guiding philosophy in life that began when she was baptized in a mill pond as a child in Summers County.

“The high parts of my life have always been Christianity, and I have always been a student of the Bible,” Vest said. “I have already seen everything in my life. I’ve been to other countries, I’ve seen the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. I’ve even seen Halley’s Comet twice.

“I’ve done it all except watch Jesus come. I think that’s the reason I am still here. Every night I go to bed and realize I may not see the morning, but I think the only reason I am still here is because I may see Jesus come.”



Christian Giggenbach writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.V.

        

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