Turning 102: Two Beaver County nursing home residents celebrating milestone birthdays
FRANKLIN TWP. – Being 102 is apparently not unusual at Trinity Oaks Personal Care Home.
Jennie Calve Safreed celebrated her 102 birthday on March 11 and Bonnie Lee Schidemantle McClymonds will be 102 on July 1.
Jennie Safreed
Safreed was born in Caulonia, a small village in Calabria Province in Italy, to Nick and Catherine Tornnese Calve.
Safreed often told the story of her father learning the shoe-making trade and marrying the shoe maker's daughter.
The young family wanted a better life in America, so Nick Calve left his young family and came to America and established a shoe-making business in Ellwood City.
ln November 1925, Safreed her mother and two older sisters came to America on the ocean liner Roma. Safreed said she was reluctant to greet her father because at her age then when people are gone for so many months, they don't remember them.
Their first home was at 922 Crescent Ave. next to the West End School and they lived there for 10 and half years and had two more children. Safreed attended West End School.
During the Depression, Safreed said her mother would give her a dime to walk to the grocery store for a soup bone and ask the grocer to please leave a little meat on the bone.
Safreed never forgot the need to be thrifty and always saved for a rainy day.
During World War II, Safreed, like many other women, worked at the local U.S. Steel mill and was able to help her family. Her first job was as a switchboard operator. Eventually, Safreed completed her education and became a bookkeeper there for 30 years.
In 1970, Safreed married former Marine Paul Safreed, and shortly after U.S. Steel closed and they were retired. They enjoyed gardening, canning and traveling. They cleared land to sell and built a house on Morningstar Drive. Paul died in 2005 and Safreed continued to be active with friends, family and at the Divine Grace Roman Catholic Church.
She is best remembered for her love for children.
Her great-niece Wesley Calve said, "She embraced all children as her own."
"Aunt Jennie has three great-nieces and one great-nephew who love her dearly," Calve said.
Bonnie Lee McClymonds
McClymonds who will be 102 on July 1 said, "The secret to a long life is working hard."
She speaks from experience. As one of six children, she began working on the farm as soon as she was able.
"I just got to go to grade school. It was the Bauder one-room school and it was a 5-mile walk to school," McClymonds said.
It was a large farm with cows, chickens, pigs and large gardens.
"I milked many cows by hand every day and I did all the work with growing and taking care of the hay. It was hard work," McClymonds said.
A pleasant memory is picking strawberries and making ice cream. During the winter her father would cut big chunks of ice from the pond, pack them in straw and chaff and store them in a building. When it was time to make the ice cream, her father would wash all the chaff off the ice and they would put it in the ice cream maker and hand crank it until the milk, sugar, and strawberries became ice cream.
In 1939, she married Carl McClymonds, moved to Muddy Creek Township and they had six children. McClymonds went from the big farm where she grew up to another big farm.
After their third child was born, Carl lost his hand in a farm accident and she had even more farm work to do, and at the same time, she tended her family and cooked two big meals a day. When Carl bought a truck she did the farming with the help of her children.
Even with being very busy, she found time to crochet afghans and made many of them, and did some embroidery.
"I never went on vacation because farmers don't get vacations," McClymonds said.
Once on a visit to Dr. Frank N. Kinney on Fountain Avenue, McClymonds said Kinney told her, "You have worked hard all your life."
I asked him, "How do you know? and he replied, "Because you have muscles in your back like a man's muscles."
McClymonds said she does not remember any very happy time, except for family.
Using a riding mower McClymonds mowed her own grass until she was 80.
"It is very nice here at Trinity Oaks; they treat me good, but I miss my home. It was on Route 488. I had a wood burner, a small kitchen and other big rooms. I miss my home. They are good to me here, but there's no place like home," McClymonds said.
During the interview, her grandson Gail McClymonds came to visit and brought her a bag of candy.
After putting it by her chair she said, "I like candy, but I gave it up for Lent so I will save it."
McClymonds has 17 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Two residents of Beaver County nursing home turn 102 this year
