Advice on 102nd Birthday: Getting Older Doesn’t Necessarily Make You Any More Brilliant

Orlando, FL, October 23, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Alma Bonebreak celebrated her 102nd birthday Wednesday with a special visit from Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer.

The resident of Wellsprings Residence on Welch Road received a card from the city and her favorite dessert – vanilla flan. She also was joined by her longtime friend Hank Wipior (they met in 1947), who travelled from Miami to visit for her birthday.

Alma shared a few key secrets for living well including her 80-year tradition of enjoying a small drink before dinner. Her favorite: a Scotch Manhattan.

She enjoys intellectual discussion. But she is careful about offering advice: “getting older doesn’t necessarily make you any more brilliant.”

Alma said she also enjoys keeping active by baking bread and solving daily crosswords and other puzzles. For many years, she actually created acrostic puzzles as a contributing member of Mensa International.

The lobby of Wellsprings Residence is decorated with her beautifully crafted artwork – including a stone carving of Bodhisattva – that she created in her 80s. Classical music softly wafted through the room as Alma spoke about her life.

She survived two husbands. Alma joked that she only planned to live until 86 so that she could reach the year 2000: “I have no idea why I lived this long. I happened to get all the good genes, I guess.”

She was born in 1913 (the same year as presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford) in Muskegon, Mich. She moved to Miami, Fla., in 1946 and to Apopka in 2013.

Alma said she remembers Apopka in the 1940s. “It was a two lane highway and all of maybe two or three blocks. It is a lot different now.”