Flo at 102 Flo at 102 (March 19, 2004)

Centenarian-plus remembers the Queen Mother and the Beatles
by Dolores Fox Ciardelli

Flo Broadhurst turned 102 on Saturday but she still has the wit and grace of a woman in the prime of her "golden" years.

"The Lord took my eyes and ears, but guess what he left me?" she asked in her English accent, with a twinkle in her eye. "The gift of gab."

Her living room coffee table in the Pleasanton Gardens senior complex was crowded with birthday greetings, and another stack of cards on the kitchen table was waiting to be opened.

"When I turned 100, the Queen sent a card," Flo recalled. "And the President."

She has outlived the Queen Mother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth who was born Aug. 4, 1900, and died in March 2002. Flo remembers seeing the Queen once when she and the other children were let out of school and gathered at the park for some occasion.

Flo was born in Stafford, Manchester. She left school when she was 14 to work in a cotton mill. During World War II, she recalled, she worked as a welder in a Ford plant that was used to build aircraft.

Flash forward a couple of decades and she remembers meeting the Beatles when she was working at a ballroom to help pay for her teenage daughters' dance lessons and examinations.

"I was supervisor of the restaurant," she said. "They would come up for snacks and everyone fell over themselves to serve them."

Although she has a wealth of memories, she seems to prefer recollecting the more recent past. She and her husband Jack moved to the United States about 30 years ago to be with their daughter Edith Caponigro, who now lives in Castlewood.

"Living in America is much faster than in England, the way of eating and cooking," Flo said. She lamented that children here are "spoiled rotten with kindness."

"My grandchildren keep me young and keep me broke," she said, referring to the cost of celebrating birthdays. "My youngest granddaughter said, 'You're the only old lady I know with dark color hair.'"

She said that when she sympathized over the phone with her other daughter who still lives in England and pays to mail packages, her daughter responded, "You will keep having these birthdays, won't you?"

Flo laughed as she told about her fun times with her friend Winnie, who also lived at Pleasanton Gardens until she died. She hailed from Yorkshire so they shared the same British tastes.

"We used to go to Main Street every day, me and Win," Flo said, recalling one particular day when it was very hot. "We went into the Pleasanton Hotel. It was crowded and we wanted a shandy. I stood at the bar and said, 'Two shandies, please.'"

She had to instruct the bartender on blending the popular British beverage, which is half beer and half 7-Up. But she ran into a snag because the English word to describe a 7-Up-type beverage is "lemonade." Luckily the bartender knew better than to combine American lemonade with beer.

"Then we went next door to the old St. Vincent de Paul," she recalled. When they were hot and thirsty again, they went back to the Pleasanton Hotel. She told Winnie to sit down and she would order two more shandies. "But I ordered two Harvey Wallbangers," she remembered, laughing. "With the two of us, it was never dull."

She attributed her longevity to "Good old English living and food - tater hash and pea soup."

"And her good sense of humor," added Georgina Aguilar, who has been helping her out for a few hours a day for about eight years. "She is my favorite lady. She is wonderful."

"I use a walking cane, but I only walk as far as the car," said Flo. "I go out for a meal. Fish and chips is the only thing I can eat. Before, I never sat for five minutes. I used to get the bus and go all over. Every week I'd go to San Francisco. I miss it now."

She would also take frequent trips to Southern California. She still frequents the Senior Center but remembers longingly when she never missed one of its events or VIP trips.

"I can't complain," she said, noting that most others her age are in nursing homes. "Well, I do complain," she added with a laugh, saying she has trouble sleeping these days, plus has aches and pains.

A week's worth of celebrations was planned to celebrate her big 1-0-2, from a family party over the weekend to a party Tuesday night at the meeting of the Daughters of the British Empire, which is held at Pleasanton Gardens.

"She's a stalwart," said Veronica Cocksedge of the Daughters. "She helps set up as much as she can."

Pleasanton Gardens is also giving a party in her honor. Flo admitted she just might sing at one of her parties, and she let loose with a verse of "I'm a lassie from Lancashire."

The gift of gab, a sense of humor and the talent to break out in song - this 102-year-old is going strong.

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