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Centenarian says hard work is the reason for her longevity
McCOOK, Neb. — Tena (Larson) Wimer may be a sweet little old lady, but don’t mess with her bingo.
In fact, if the doctor is running late in seeing Wimer at Hillcrest Nursing Home where she lives, she’s been known to scold him if it causes her to miss the opportunity to play.
But at 102 years old, she’s earned the right to scold every now and then. Asked one day by her doctor what helped her live so long, she answered, “Hard work. I did that as a kid at home and I was always my first husband’s “hired” man. I worked side by side with him right up to the day he died.”
The fourth of 15 children born in a rural German settlement community near Macon, Neb., Tena Elfrieda Rohnke learned early on that hard work and sacrifice kept the family together. She was unable to finish her eighth year of school when her family moved to the Lyle, Kan., area and she stayed behind with her mother, who was pregnant with her 12th child and too far along to make the trip. Once the baby was born and they joined the family, Tena took the eighth grade over again, but it was the last grade she finished.
Domestic chores back then were day-long affairs. All washing was done every Monday by scrubbing on a scrub board. Tuesday was ironing day, with flat irons heated on top of the cookstove fired by corn cobs that were picked up out of the pig pens after the pigs had eaten off the corn. And every Wednesday and Saturday were baking bread days.
Married in 1933 at age 18 to Fay (Bud) Larson, after the wedding she changed out of her good clothes into work clothes and followed her husband out to the fields to help, much to his surprise. Bud and Tena worked side by side many times throughout their marriage, as for them and many other families of that era, farm life was more of a “we” than ”me” lifestyle.
With hundred acres to plant, summertime was especially busy. Once, when a majority of the work needed to be completed at the same time, one of the tractors broke down. To make sure everything got done, her husband drove the remaining tractor in the daytime, working the summer fallow and sleeping in the car at night. Then, at night, Tena used the tractor with a small light to cultivate the corn, being careful to keep the nose of the tractor on top of soil ridge. At daylight, she would return home to check on her children and give the older ones instructions on what needed to be done for the day. She’d then try to get some sleep, in order to be ready to return to the field that evening.
Raising six kids during the Depression wasn’t easy but she wasn’t alone, with the rest of the county doing the same. The kids also pitched in, milking the cows, feeding the chickens and helping with canning and cleaning. Indoor plumbing still hadn’t come to rural areas and all water that was hauled in and heated on the stove for baths and washing had to be hauled out.
Dresses from Wimer’s seven sisters, ripped out and re-sewn, helped dress her daughters, along with chicken and flour sacks that came in printed patterns.
While home remedies nowadays can be found in seconds on the Internet, back in the day, they were handed down from generation to generation and used during the Depression instead of calling the doctor. When one of her daughter’s was accidentally burned with boiling water from the stove, Tena placed potato peelings on the burn, exchanging new peels for old ones every few minutes. It worked: there was no scarring afterwards.
Despite the blowing dirt and searing cold, she always kept a spic and span house, recalled two of her daughters, Joann Larue of Oberlin, Kan., and Ona Malleck of Indianola, Neb. That carried over in later years, when Tena had a car and kept it immaculate, using a whisk broom to brush the floor and seats, pushing the seats back to get every inch.
That perfectionism is something she still has today, her daughters attest. Not a fan of using tissue, Tena instead folds soft paper towels that she likes to tuck in her pockets. Her daughters help her, but they must be folded absolutely correctly.
“She tells you she can’t see, but she lets you know if one little corner is off,” Ona laughed.
Tena’s six children, in order of birth, are Joan Larue, Jeanette McConnell of Strasburg, Neb., and Ona Malleck (all born within three years), Lelah Larson of Santa Fe, N.M., Wayne E. Larson of Oberlin and Gloria Godtel of Roca, Neb. She also has 16 grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren, three step-great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Since 1990, the number of centenarians (people aged 100-plus) has doubled. By 2050, it is projected that it will grow eight-fold.
Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas have the highest concentrations of people aged 100 or older, according to the U.S. Census. North Dakota is first with 3.29 centenarians per 10,000 people, South Dakota is second with 2.95. Iowa, three, with 2.78 percent and Nebraska, four, with 2.74 percent. No. 5 is Connecticut with 2.6 percent.
In honor of Nebraska’s 150th birthday, the “Nebraska Project” has created “Nebraska’s Centenarians,” a 19 minute video of interviews with Nebraskan’s who are 100 year or older. The video can be viewed at www.nebraskaproject.com/portfolio-item/nebraskas-centenarians/