“This is the first time we’ve had three residents past the age of 100,’’ said Jonathan Burkhart, executive director. “They have so many wonderful stories to tell.”
Like Engel, who was in Israel once and wanted to get to Jerusalem, but had no transportation.
“So she hitchhiked – by herself – to Israel,’’ said her son, Don Kemen of Fairfield.
Another time Engel said she and a girlfriend were visiting Chile when they lost track of time and broke curfew.
“We were arrested and thrown in jail overnight – with the prostitutes,’’ Engel said.
A Texas native, Engel worked on B-25 hydraulics, and eventually began teaching fellow servicemen how to troubleshoot and repair the bombers.
It was there she met her future husband, Larry Kemen, who was also assigned to Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. After dining together every night for two weeks, they walked to a local church and got married.
A Middletown native and daughter of Italian immigrants, Just trained at Mercy Hospital Hamilton (closed in 2001) – now the site of RiversEdge Park – and then moved to Hamilton where she became a nurse.
Her training meant it was often Just who treated neighborhood children in Lindenwald who became sick, fell, or otherwise hurt themselves.
“I help everyone. My son would go down the street and call out ‘Mom, there’s another child that hurt himself. Mom, can you help?” Just recalled.
She calls her children her biggest blessing. Just is emphatic about not giving advice. She was a longtime volunteer at St. Ann’s Church. She and her husband, Walter, traveled the world, visiting Egypt, China, and Japan, among other places.
Jones was born and raised in a small town near Mobile, Alabama on a farm where “we had chickens, geese, hogs, cows and two mules – we plowed with them,’’ Jones said.
Besides the animals, cotton, corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes and strawberries were grown on the farm.
“I don’t know how (we) did it. We didn’t have the equipment we have today,” Jones said.
Jones said she never expected to live this long and is amazed at what she’s seen in her lifetime including men landing on the moon, and World War II,
“I don’t know why I’ve lived this long. God’s been good to me,’’ Jones said. “I know you need to have a great sense of humor.”
A big fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide football program, Jones watches every game she can on television and even got a license plate made for her walked which reads Roll Tide.
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