Time changes so quickly. Even in the last 10 years, the progress we’ve made in technology is astonishing. Imagine, then, how many changes 108-year-old Naomi Wilde has witnessed in her life. This beloved grandma just became Idaho’s oldest living woman and, this week, her loved ones were happy to celebrate such a momentous occasion.
How does one properly celebrate such an incredible feat? For starters, you reminisce. Naomi, who now lives at the Grace Assisted Living Center, was born in 1915. For perspective, that was five years before the 19th amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
When asked if she and her family had electricity or indoor plumbing, she had this to say.
“Oh, no, heavens no,” Naomi laughed. “We had to run out on the hillside and find the toilets to keep to house.”
For much of Naomi’s young life, her family traveled by horse and buggy rather than car. In fact, she still remembers when cars had recently been invented. Car salesmen would travel door to door telling families about this incredible new way to travel. Naomi recalled when one visited her own family.
Even though her dad let the salesman know he had never driven before, with the salesman’s assistance, he still let them take it out for a spin, an opportunity that thrilled little Naomi.
“So he [my dad] got over there, and my sister and I were so excited,” Naomi told Local 12. “I jumped on one side of the fender, and she jumped on the other side. And away we go. When he got a way’s over wide, and he put dad under the wheel. First thing you know, up the hill he went and tipped over.”
In addition to telling some unforgettable stories, Naomi got to travel back in time with a ride in a horse and buggy. Plus, a local Chevrolet dealership made sure she got to ride in style, too, with a trip in a brand-new convertible-top Camaro.
So much has happened in Naomi’s life. Even in the past year she received a marriage proposal from a fellow resident. Though, if you ask Naomi, it wasn’t the real thing.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Yes, but he was just kidding. If I said yes, he’d run off ahead.”
If you ask the proposer, however, he tells a different story.
“And I asked her several times to marry me, but she just, she said that I’m too young for her,” he explained.
We may never know the truth of Naomi’s mystery romance, but one thing is for sure: This beloved woman feels blessed by the life she’s had the opportunity to enjoy.
“That’s how you live, for your family,” Naomi said. “I just live for my family and hope I can pray with them and make them enjoy life more. And that is really what it’s all about.”
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