JOEY CAPORALI
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It is not every day that a person lives to be 100 years old. Mildred Wedderspoon, who has lived in Pierstown near Cooperstown for more than 60 years, has reached that milestone. She celebrated her birthday on Monday. After 10 rings of the telephone a voice answers, “Hello.”
It is a long drawn out hello spoken with a friendly and delightful voice.
“Is Mildred home?” I asked. “This is Mildred.” Again the voice is friendly, inviting you to talk.
“My name is Joey Caporali, a freelance writer for the Cooperstown Crier, and I was told you are turning 100 today. Congratulations.” “Oh, thank you,” she said. “Yes, I made it.” We both laughed.
For the next 10 minutes Wedderspoon entertained with facts and youthful adventures of her life. Wedderspoon said she moved to Pierstown from Mount Kisco, in Westchester County. She said she was married to Ford Wedderspoon for 12 years and never had children. Is it coincidence or good genes? Her mother lived to be 99, and a cousin lived to be 99½, prompting a comment by Wedderspoon saying, “she didn’t make it.”
Fact: In 1912, the year of Wedderspoons birth, William Howard Taft was president, and in the next 100 years, Wedderspoon lived through a century of what could be considered the greatest technological advancements of human history.
All of these facts however, pale in comparison to some of her own life experiences. “When I was 16,” she said, “a young man invited me to take an airplane ride with him and I accepted. It was one of those open cockpit planes, the ones you have to wear the goggles for, and he took me up and we flew all around.”
Laughing with delight she said, “But what I didn’t know is that he didn’t have a pilot’s license and that he was just learning how to fly. But I guess he got me down OKbecause I am still here.”
When asked if she would have gone up with him if she had known he didn’t know how to fly she said, “I suppose I would have.”
Friends of Wedderspoon speak only of kindness and of joy when talking about her. “She is just a great lady, who has a big circle of friends and neighbors that look after her,” said one friend who wished to stay anonymous. “As far as family, she has just outlived them all.”
Wedderspoon said she used to enjoy making handmade hooked rugs and liked gardening, but has slowed down a bit these last few years.
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MILDRED WEDDERSPOON passed the century mark this week. JOEY CAPORALI
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