100 years of loving life

Kansas City Star

March 04, 2008

Ann Bell waited 100 years for what she called the 'best birthday of my life.'

To celebrate her milestone, the Merriam resident spent Saturday surrounded by dozens of friends, a visit from Mayor Carl Wilkes, three huge birthday cakes and a sprinkling of flowers. She also got a ride in a fire truck.

As she sat in her cozy living room on Monday, recounting her party, her eyes lit up in delight. She doesn't know which one enchants her most: spending her birthday with friends she adores or reaching a birthday very few people can claim.

'Who would have thought I'd be turning 100?' she asked in amazement. 'I'm very lucky and grateful to have such good friends and good health. I was never sick a day in my life, and I still have most of my real teeth.'

She paused to think.

'Although I am getting a little near-sighted,' she added with a slight frown.

When firefighters from the Merriam Fire Department surprised her in the afternoon with a new thermostat for her birthday, the outgoing woman kept them entertained with stories from her life.

With each account, it was clear to the firemen the past century had been anything but boring for Bell.

She was born on March 4, 1908, in Czechoslovakia, and her family moved to Kansas City, Kan., when she was 8 months old.

As the United States fought in an international battle, the young brunette found several ways to drive her mother nuts.

She accidentally set a hill near her house on fire, while trying to cook potatoes. She also got caught trying to force baby chickens to swim.

'As a little girl, I was very mischievous and I got into everything,' she said, with a laugh. 'I just couldn't behave myself back then. My mother had a terrible time controlling me.'

A decade later, Bell bloomed into a well-behaved young woman and fell in love with a boy named Clyde.

'He was very handsome, and we were teenage sweethearts,' Bell said. 'He liked me immediately, but he was from a poor family and didn't think he could take care of me.'

The two broke up and went their separate ways.

The young woman's job transferred her to California, and, although she still kept in touch with Clyde, no love letters were exchanged.

In an attempt to move on, she dated and ended up being proposed to five times.

'I could have married a millionaire's son, but (like the others) he didn't mean anything to me,' she said. 'I broke up with him because I realized that I still loved Clyde.'

When World War II ended, Bell's dream came true.

Clyde, who had served in the Navy, contacted his former girlfriend.

'When the war ended, he wrote me a letter saying he always loved me and wanted to marry me,' said Bell, with a wistful smile. 'And then I found out later that he carried my picture in his wallet all during the war. He said he used to sit above ship and take out my picture and talk to me.'

The two, who were now in their forties, quickly married in Las Vegas in 1946 and settled down in California.

In 1961, they moved to Merriam, so Clyde could take care of his ill parents.

Soon, an unfortunate event quickly changed their lives.

Clyde fell down their basement steps and injured his spinal chord. The fall paralyzed him.

The dedicated wife spent the next 34 years taking care of him, before his death 16 years ago.

Although she was married for three decades, Bell has always considered herself an independent woman.

The quick-witted 100-year-old lives alone and still helps out her friends and neighbors whenever she can.

'She (Bell) gets outside and always keeps her lawn immaculate,' said Bob Pape, her neighbor and the Merriam fire marshal. 'She has one of the best yards in the neighborhood and she does her leaves daily. She even helps me with my yard.'

In the early 1980s, Bell, then in her seventies, built a free-standing rock wall in her back yard, to keep her basement from flooding.

She also volunteered for years at the St. Joseph Church and a local thrift store.

Her most prized work, however, is all the crafts she makes in her home.

She spent years making Nativity sets and birdhouses.

She proudly showed the firefighters her Christmas tree, which she left up for her nephew to see when he visits her this week.

She created the shimmering gold ornaments on it out of shoe boxes 20 years ago.

Hallmark approached her and suggested she market them, but Bell refused.

'I wanted to be the only person in the world with a tree like mine,' she said.

'It's pretty remarkable to know someone living to 100,' Pape said. 'She has a lot of stories to tell, and I hear new

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