Just before her 100th birthday, I asked my great-grandmother for her secret to a long life. She told me, 'Don't worry so much.'

"Mabel Wells - or Memmie, to her family - lived her entire life in rural Kentucky. During the hourlong drive to her house, my younger sister and I counted cows and tried to guess which field went with what crop. Mabel was born in 1909, at a time when the Titanic was being built, World War I was still five years away,"

""How was your weekend?" I once asked my great-grandmother. "Good, I was out visiting the 'old folks,'" she said with a grin. The "'old folks'" she was referring to were the people living in the retirement home - unlike my great-grandmother, who was still living independently in her house. I couldn't help but giggle, because she was 91 years young at the time."

Mabel Wells, known as Memmie, lived in rural Hodgenville, Kentucky, and reached 100 years old. She was born in 1909, farmed, raised three children, and ran a café while remaining independently housed into her 90s. She remained active, direct, confident, and socially connected, visiting residents at a retirement home and keeping an evening TV ritual. Grandchildren remember rummaging through her attic and basement, feeling both intimidated by her frankness and loved by her presence. Rural details include long drives past fields, counting cows, and historical context of early 20th-century life.

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