Search Weight Loss Topics:

Home » Fitness » Fitness, fortitude and more have carried 102-year-old South Bay woman through a blessed life – The Mercury News

The letters Y, M, C and A have been very good to Marge Hatfield in recent years, but she credits living by words beginning with the letter F for living more than a century of bliss.

Last Friday, the Northwest YMCA in Cupertino threw a birthday for Hatfield, easily its oldest member. The garden tea party themed get-together capped off a long string of celebrations for Hatfield, who in recent weeks has been wished happy birthday by more people than she can count.

They all want to take me out, Hatfield said of all her many friends and fellow YMCA members. Ive been celebrating my birthday since June.

In a brief speech, daughter Barbara Harper shared the words that her mother believes are the secret to her long life: faith, family, fun, fitness and fortitude. All of these, she said, are backed up with the right attitude.

A desire for a fit lifestyle is what brings Hatfield to the YMCA roughly three or four times a week. She takes up shop in a reserved corner and works on a routine devised years ago by a physical therapist. She spends 45 minutes in the pool most of those days and does floor exercises once a week to conserve energy for pool time.

She credits the self-guided routines and trips to the weight room for keeping her fit and healthy. She said she works on her strength so she can lift her rolling walker into the car.

Exercises keep me flexible, or else Id be as stiff as a board, she said.

Her habits have given her a bit of celebrity status at the YMCA.

Everybody knows its me right there in my little corner, she said.

As a testament to her fitness and mobility, Hatfield lives independently and still drives herselfonly a mile or so, she saysto the YMCA and a small number of locations. Driving after dark and on the freeway is a no-go, but Harper vouches for her mothers skill behind the wheel and points to a recent perfect score on the written renewal test.

My license is good til Im 103, but I wont drive after that, Hatfield said.

For her 84th birthday in 1999, she went tandem skydiving with the family, and the jump made international news, Harper said.

Hatfield and the family recall her first doctor refusing to give someone of her age permission to jump out of a plane, but a smile comes across Hatfields face as she recalls seeking out and securing a second opinion from another doctor who signed off on the jump.

In attendance at the YMCA party was her neighbor, Shanthi Dhamodharan, whose family has grown very close to Hatfield. They get together every Christmas to make rocky road candy.

Whenever I tell her that much of my family lives in India, she says we are all of her family, Dhamodharan said.

Beyond faith, family, fun, fitness, fortitude and the right attitude, Hatfield playfully concedes that her diet hasnt necessarily been the secret to her longevity.

I cant say eat the proper food because I eat everything that I like, she said, adding some insight that may not come from a doctor or nutritionist. You just have to be happy and have a smile on your face and just be interested in other people.

Hatfield was born July 18, 1915, in New Orleans. She met her husband Adrianduring World War II at a USO show in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1942. A few years later the couple moved to California and spent many years in Turlock before living in communities around the Bay Area. Her husband worked as an aerial photographer, and the couple raised three boys and three girls.

She worked at the Stanford Research Center and continued work at Hewlett-Packard for another 16 years, retiring in the early 1980s.

See the article here:
Fitness, fortitude and more have carried 102-year-old South Bay woman through a blessed life - The Mercury News

Your Full Name
Your Email
Your Phone Number
Select your age (30+ only)	30313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120
Select Your US State	Select Your StateAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWashington,DCWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Program Choice	Select Your ProgramInjectable HGHInjectable TestoteroneInjectable SermorelinInjectable Weight LossInjectable HCG DietInjectable Vitamins
Confirm over 30 years old	Yes
Confirm that you resident in USA	Yes
This is a Serious Inquiry	Yes
Message:

Home » Fitness » Fitness, fortitude and more have carried 102-year-old South Bay woman through a blessed life – The Mercury News