MONMOUTH, Ill. — They say that age is just a number and for one Monmouth woman that's all too true.
Lois Paulson is a Monmouth, Illinois resident and is turning 107 on Sunday, September 19th, 2021.
"I don't feel any older now than I did in the 80s or 90s," Lois said.
Lois was born before women had the right to vote in the U.S., before the first computer, and before the NFL was founded.
"When me and my husband were dating, we dated on a dollar," Lois said. "[It] cost us $0.25 each to go to the movie. There was a little restaurant down here on South Main Street and we could get a hamburger for $0.10 and a bottle of pop for $0.05."
Try doing that today.
Lois walked to school, both ways, even when it snowed or rained. That is until she got to high school and could drive her very own Model A Ford Coup.
In 107 years, Lois has no doubt seen things come and go and says the thing that kept her going was keeping busy.
Lois had to overcome a lot too, including illnesses, having survived the Spanish flu of 1918.
"We had an old doctor," Lois said. "Dr. Kimrey, from Swisher, Illinois came out in horse and buggy every day to see us."
Lois also remembers the polio vaccine rollout of the 1950s.
"People got vaccinated right away with their polio," she said. "You know, they couldn't wait to get their kids vaccinated, especially their kids".
And when comparing both major health events to the coronavirus pandemic... "It's nothing like it," she says. Lois said she's surprised at the hesitancy around the vaccine.
"I can't understand why people wouldn't want to take care of themselves and get vaccinated," she said.
But having lived through the Spanish flu, polio epidemic and now living through the current coronavirus pandemic, Lois rolled up her sleeve and got her shot, so she could keep busy. Busy living a life well lived.