Two Webster at Rye residents awarded Boston Post Cane. Who is older? No one knows.

RYE — Hospitalized in Boston with a serious illness as a youngster, Portsmouth native Barbara Long took exception to a doctor telling her family she may not live to be 21 years old. But she got better, and all her life since then, she has set out to make it another year.

“Each year that I had one more birthday was a big deal for me,” Long said Friday.

At 102 years old and counting, Long’s longevity has put her in special company in town, recently earning the Webster at Rye resident a distinction she shares with another resident at the assisted living facility.

Town officials honored Long and Marion Cronin, also 102 years old, with the Boston Post Cane award on Nov. 7, a New England tradition and distinction given to participating municipalities' oldest residents. The residents met at a birthday celebration that Webster at Rye put on for them in February 2022, but live on different floors in the building.

There’s a catch to this unrelated pair’s bond: Both were born on Feb. 7, 1921, though it’s unknown who was born first that day. On top of that, Cronin’s late mother, who lived to be 108 years old, was also a recipient of the Boston Post Cane in Stow, Massachusetts years ago.

What would her mother think of her receiving the same recognition years later? Cronin was quick with a joke.

“She’d think it was old news,” she quipped.

In 1909, Edwin Grozier, publisher of the now-defunct Boston Post newspaper, distributed 700 canes to municipalities throughout New England, though not in Connecticut and Vermont. The canes were intended to be given to the community’s oldest living male resident, but in 1930, eligibility was expanded to include women.

Each ebony cane comes with a gold cap and is inscribed with every participating municipality’s name.

“The custom of the Boston Post Cane took hold in those towns lucky enough to have canes,” a website for the tradition states. “As years went by some of the canes were lost, stolen, taken out of town and not returned to the Selectmen or destroyed by accident.”

Jane Sweeney, Webster at Rye’s activities assistant, said Rye’s Boston Post Cane was supposed to go to a 105-year-old Webster at Rye resident, though that person refused the acknowledgement, paving the way for Cronin and Long.

The ceremony for the two was held Tuesday morning at Webster at Rye, with Town Administrator Matthew Scruton and Rye Select Board members Bill Epperson, Tom King and Bob McGrath gifting them with certificates of distinction.

Cronin was married to her now-late husband George Cronin for 68 years and studied fashion and design in school before taking various jobs. The New York native, who has been living at Webster at Rye since 2020, listened intently on Friday as her newfound “twin” told the story of her health struggles earlier in life.

“That’s why you never, ever give up,” Cronin said.

Cronin has three children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. The eldest of her kids, Dianne Ryan of Exeter, noted her mother and Long have experienced major moments in history throughout their decades of life.

The two were young kids when the Great Depression hit.

“I think about what didn’t exist in 1921 that we take for granted today, from televisions to (jet) planes to computers. All of these things, none of them existed,” Ryan said. “Their lives were much simpler but I don’t think it was necessarily easier. My mother said … that there were a lot of rough days.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Two Webster at Rye residents awarded Boston Post Cane. Both are 102.