Lillie Cunningham celebrated her one hundred and tenth birthday in Florence, Ala., in late September.
Libby Johnson
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Libby Johnson
She could also be one of many world’s oldest individuals. However age is only a quantity to Lillie Cunningham.
At 110 years outdated, Cunningham is stuffed with life, a lot in order that she not too long ago loved a weekend of birthday celebrations surrounded by her neighborhood, household and mates.
She acquired quite a few presents: a key to the town of Florence, Ala., her hometown; a letter from President Biden; a proclamation declaring Sept. 26 as Lillie Cunningham Day; and over 200 birthday playing cards from individuals throughout the US.
“I did not do something. I simply sat and listened to them have fun me,” Cunningham tells NPR with a chuckle when requested about her birthday celebration.
Lillie Cunningham is 29 or 30 years outdated on this household picture.
Cunningham household
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Cunningham household
She was born on Sept. 26, 1914, in Lauderdale County, in Alabama’s northwest nook. On the time, ladies didn’t but have the precise to vote, Jim Crow legal guidelines restricted the rights of Black People, and Woodrow Wilson, the twenty eighth president of the U.S., was within the White Home.
Cunningham remembers rising up on a farm and going to church. She has outlived her 4 siblings — in addition to her husband — and has greater than 100 nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.
“I have been working ever since I used to be capable of put a flour sack round my neck and choose cotton, chop cotton,” she says. “So, that is nearly virtually all I did rising up. Was in a discipline chopping cotton, choosing cotton … go to highschool, go to Sunday college and on to church.”
She credit God for protecting her secure by way of many occasions during the last century, together with two pandemics — influenza in 1918 and COVID-19 — and two world wars. A member of Rock Primitive Baptist Church in Florence, she attends church each Sunday and reads her Bible each evening and each morning.
“I simply at all times had religion and belief in God that he was going to hold us by way of no matter what different individuals mentioned,” Cunningham says.
When she’s not at church, Cunningham cooks, watches sport reveals and does crossword puzzles. Her great-niece and great-nephew, Pat Turner and Rickie Cole, say she was nonetheless driving herself to the grocery retailer till a number of months in the past.
“She is set,” Cole says, recalling how Cunningham had hip surgical procedure when she was 102 — and was practically strolling on her personal only a week later.
Lillie Cunningham and her great-nephew Rickie Cole at her residence on Sunday. “She is set,” Cole says. She does not want a walker to get round and refuses to make use of a cane.
Cunningham household
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Cunningham household
“She stayed with my mom and complained about how she do not have to be in my mama’s home — she have to be at residence caring for herself,” he says. “It was extra of a problem to maintain her at my mom’s home than the surgical procedure itself.”
Even now, her household says, she does not want a walker and refuses to make use of a cane.
In November, she plans to move to the polls to vote within the 2024 presidential election, and she or he has a message for many who do not plan to vote, particularly younger individuals.
“I inform them to verify to vote as a result of at one time I could not vote or do something. So, those who do not vote now, I ask them why they do not vote, as a result of they’ve an opportunity to do issues now that I did not do once I was developing,” she says.
As for the key to residing an extended life, the supercentenarian says there’s no specific secret, however she factors to her Christian beliefs.
“I do not know why God let me reside this lengthy,” she says. “However I thank him, reward him that he did and continues to be blessing me the place I can get round and go do for myself.”