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PHOTOS BY CLARE JENSEN

CELEBRATE. Millie Poole (far right above) is surrounded by friends, family and staff at the Morgan Family Branch YMCA June 19 to celebrate her 100th birthday. Poole works out three to five times a week in the water aerobics class at the YMCA.

Happy 100th Birthday!

Woman holds onto her health, spirit in old age

By Clare Jensen

Millie Poole is a remarkable woman.

She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s athletic. She’s stylish. She’s got great hair, and an even better memory.

And she’s been that way for a century.

The 100-year-old Tacoma woman is a picture of health physically, mentally and spiritually. Her hearing is a little poor in a noisy room – but what do you expect? She’s 100.

There are a lot of things about Millie – short for Millicent – that are remarkable.

It can be rare to see someone reach the triple digits, even rarer to see someone who turns 100 and does not show it.

Millie could certainly pass for 85. She lives on her own in a nice condo in Tacoma’s West End. She dresses stylishly – when she is not in her swim gear. Oh yeah, she still gets her recommended three days of exercise per week. Sometimes even five.

Millie was born on June 24, 1908, and grew up on the vast plains of Hitchcock, North Dakota. She remembers when the Titanic sank in 1912, and she was close with her grandfather who served in the Civil War. She survived the influenza pandemic of 1918, which took the lives of nearly 40 million people worldwide, including her father in 1922.

She also survived the death of her husband in 1968, something she thought she might not have made it through.

“After my husband died…I really thought I was going to go,” she recalled.

Her doctor recommended that she exercise more to help with her high blood pressure, so she began walking every day.

When she hit 92, she decided to join the YMCA. Now she is hooked on the low-impact water aerobics class, which she tries to get to as much as she can.

“Water aerobics is what really brought me health,” she said.

Her blood pressure is still high, but she is not concerned – she has made it this far, so it cannot be that bad.

She used to work as a substitute first-grade teacher for Tacoma School District, where she was known for her “zest for work, her personality and her ability to connect with the children” according to her employee files.

She is the matriarch of a large family and raised three boys, having her youngest when she was 40.

“She was a force,” said her youngest son Dan Poole.

He noted that watching the growth and accomplishment of her seven grandchildren and great-grandchildren is very important to her today.

Poole added that the YMCA has made a huge impact in his mother’s life as well. And it is not just the health benefits of regular exercise. It is the people who surround her during her outings that enhance all aspects of her life.

“It’s been really a spiritual thing for her being down here…that’s what kept her coming back.”

Now the oldest member of the health club, Millie also seems to be the most popular. She has embraced friendship at every opportunity at the Y, from the “very polite” staff to her water aerobic classmates.

At a birthday party celebration at the Morgan Family branch of the YMCA June 19, Millie sat back and relaxed as people young and old stopped by to give her a hug, or a kiss, and wish her a happy birthday.

And she thanked each one by name.

She drank a couple cups of black coffee as she ate pieces of chocolate cake, and visited with a closer circle of friends around a small table. Her swimming buddies, she called them. One friend cautioned Millie, as the guest of honor went for another dessert,

“You’re not going to be hungry for dinner,” the concerned pal commented.

Millie took another bite and laughed.

“I’m 100,” she politely said. “I can do whatever I damn well please.”

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