World Photo by Jolene Guzman Mary "Josephine" Nelson, near right, shown here in her home in Libby on March 28, will turn 100 years old on April 12. She has lived in the area all her life.

Mary “Josephine” Nelson can balance her checkbook to the penny, recognize a scam from mile away, keep her garden free of weeds and — Oh, yes! —  she can hitch up a horse and buggy.

And the 99-year-old Libby resident, born Mary Josepha Vay on April 12, 1908, is more than a little weary of the fuss her family and friends are making about her upcoming 100th birthday.

“The only thing I am is old,” Nelson said in an exasperated tone, directing her comment to her daughter, Joy Robbins. “You treat me like a fossil.”

Nelson said she would rather go hide in a tent on the beach for the day. But, alas, her family isn’t about to let her run away on her big day.

Nelson’s blue eyes are as bright and quick as her responses. Her white hair is set in curls every Friday. Her smile and laughter come often and easily as she reflects on her long life.

Her hearing is fading — a result of years of working around the noisy machines in Evans Products Company, a wood products manufacturing company open in Coos Bay in the early- and mid-1900s — but otherwise she is perfectly healthy. She said a “farmer’s daughter” diet and plenty of walking may account for her longevity.

“We were a healthy bunch,” she said of herself and her four sisters and brother. “We did a lot of walking.”

Walking was how she and her sisters got to Mass a St. Monica Catholic Church in Coos Bay, where she still attends every Sunday and Wednesday. They walked, that is, until 1930, when Nelson and her sister, Irene, bought the family a car. The 1928 Whippet made outings easier, but they still had to push it out of the mud puddles along the unpaved roads near their farm. It wasn’t until 70 years later, at the age of 92, Nelson finally quit driving.

Healthy living certainly has helped, but ultimately, Nelson believes, there are higher intentions at work.

“The Lord doesn’t want me yet,” she said. “So I’m still here.”

An open house for friends and family is planned at Nelson’s home on  April 12, the same home in which she’s lived in for 65 years and raised her children. Nelson and her husband, Merle, put a $25 down payment on the house, which started out with two rooms. As the family grew, they added on. Almost every inch of the dining room wall and shelf space is filled with photographs and mementos from almost a century of living.

Nelson is a lifelong Bay Area resident. She has lived her entire life within a few miles of her home and graduated from Marshfield High School in 1928.

Though she liked school and was very determined to graduate, not all the memories were good.

 Nelson recalled the death of a boy she went to school with named Norman, who died of polio. She put her reaction of sadness and fear into a poem, “To Norman Going,” that was published in the school yearbook.

“He was a very nice young man. Everybody liked him,” she said. “It was scary. There was no help for polio.”

Marshfield, like any other high school, was full of boisterous students, but the day after he died, the school was quiet, she said.

Nelson started school two years later than she should have because the local school in Libby closed in 1914, the year she would have been in first grade. The only option for the girls was a nearly 5-mile walk. They quit school for two years, until the family moved closer in. Before attending Marshfield, Nelson went to St. Monica Catholic School in the seventh and eighth grades. She worked during the summer to pay for the $18 tuition.

“It wasn’t uncommon for girls to drop out,” she said, adding many girls started working or were married before finishing high school. “I made up my mind. I was going to get a diploma.”

She had no plans of marrying until she was absolutely sure she met the right man — and it was sister Irene who introduced her to him.

Merle wasn’t the right man for Irene. Nelson said Irene and Merle spent most of their few dates fighting and snapping at each other.  But Irene’s difficult relationship was Josephine’s gift. Merle and Josephine were married on June 23, 1935. The couple had five children: Tom, Mike, Mary Rose, Joy and Ann. Mary Rose was born with a heart condition and died as a baby. After 45 years of marriage, Merle died in 1980 and Nelson never remarried. She said it took her 27 years to find the right one. She didn’t want to try to find another.

Nelson vividly remembers the glory days of Coos Bay, when on the 10th and 25th of the month, the paydays for many local companies, the streets were packed with people. A busy night in the city now just doesn’t compare in Nelson’s eyes.

“Now they say ,‘Hold on to your purse,’” she said. “I don’t know why. There is no one on the street.”

Dancing, Nelson said with a smile, was her favorite out-on-the-town activity. Prohibition was in full swing at the time and any drunken revelers would be tossed out of the dances. But that didn’t stop some people.

“Prohibition worked just the opposite, she said. “I wasn’t a bit interested, but we all knew what was going on.”

She has since traded her dancing shoes for gardening shoes. She plants flowers and keeps her yard free of weeds. Nelson also has an extensive knowledge of history and keeps a close eye on politics.

“She’s like an encyclopedia,” Robbins said.

Whether the memories are good or bad, humorous or serious, Nelson recalls her life with clarity most would envy.

“When I look back on almost 100 years, it’s interesting,” she said.

Nelson said she can’t remember anything really extraordinary happening in her life and summed up her 100 years in two simple words: “Just living.”