When Eva Lasonde was born, the first Model T rolled off the Ford assembly line and inventor Orville Wright received a contract to build the first military airplane.
A lot has happened in the past 100 years that Lasonde has been alive, but one thing has remained the same - her cheerful personality, sense of humor, devotion to her Catholic faith and love for family.
"I never thought I'd live this long," said the spunky, petite woman, who turned 100 Tuesday. "I'm lucky I'm alive, and I just want to keep living so I can be with my grandchildren and my son."
Lasonde credits her longevity to those personality traits, along with a fat-free diet and a love for chocolate.
Lasonde is one of a growing number of Americans who are living to 100 years old or more.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of centenarians has grown 60 percent since 1990 and will continue to rise to 274,000 by 2025.
"The number is growing by leaps and bounds," said Thomas Shea, professor and director of the center for cellular neurobiology and neurodegeneration research at University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Shea credits better health care, nutrition and staying active as reasons why people are living longer.
"The reason is not genetic," Shea said. "The more you stay active, the longer you live, and the more you stay socially and mentally active, attempt to eat good food, you prolong your life span."
People like Lasonde, who remains mentally active by cooking, cleaning, doing crossword puzzles and word searches, is using her mind to plan meals and think about strategies to do housework and puzzles.
"It's not so much the particular thing they do, it's the fact that they are doing something that stimulates their mind," Shea said.
Anne Proli, associate executive director at Elder Services of Merrimack Valley, agreed.
"I find a lot of aging people pushing themselves," she said. Her own mother, who is 86 and has limited mobility, decided to walk around the house instead of going outside to exercise. She knows of other elders who dust while sitting on a chair instead of having someone else do it for them.
"There's still a resilience in the aging population. They are looking for ways of doing things differently so they can do the task at hand."
Other factors leading to longevity include less hard labor and more attention to nutrition, exercise and socializing.
"When you think of aging, you don't think of dying, but an issue of longevity," she said.
Lasonde was born in Lawrence, the oldest of seven children. Only she and her 97-year-old sister, Marion Roux of Derry, N.H., are still alive. She was educated at the former St. Joseph School in Lawrence and studied at Methuen Continuation School, where she took sewing, cooking and home nursing classes.
The family lived in several locations in Lawrence before buying a lot of land in Andover. Her father built their house, room by room, because they didn't have the money to erect it all at once. Lasonde has lived there since she was 16.
Like others of her generation, Lasonde started working in the mills at 14 and toiled at the Cotton, Acadia and Shawsheen mills, and JoGal Shoes. She retired at 63. She married Joseph Lasonde in 1933 at Sacred Heart Church in Lawrence. The couple had one son, also named Joseph, who is now 68.
"It's great because it's a privilege to live to be 100," her son said. "I couldn't have asked for a better mother. ... She always taught me to tell it like it is because you have to be honest."
Today, Lasonde, who became a widow in 1986, has three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren, whom she enjoys playing card games with.
Other than using a walker and a hearing aid, she is in good health. She still cooks her own meals and cleans her house, she said.
Lasonde keeps her Catholic faith alive by watching daily and Sunday Mass on television, reading her prayer book, reciting the rosary, offering prayers to the saints and receiving Holy Communion monthly.
Her mind is sharp, and she can recall historical events as if they happened yesterday, such as the Great Depression when her husband lost his job as a mule spinner at Admiral Folding Box. She remembers the happy times, too, such as hearing the bells and whistles from the mills at the end of World War II, seeing residents spill into the streets jumping for joy; and riding the electric cars to Canobie Lake Park in Salem, N.H.
She has seen the advent of the television, refrigerator, telephone, computer, washing machine and dishwasher.
But the appliance that impresses her the most is the microwave.
"You can warm up the food in five minutes," she said, laughing.
"She's an amazingly strong woman," said granddaughter Cynthia Carberry of Andover.
As she begins a new century, she is looking forward to watching more history being made, perhaps the election of a female president, she said.
"I wouldn't mind. Women are as smart as men. They all go to college," she said.
Two things Lasonde has never done in her life are drive a car and fly in an airplane.
"I didn't want to drive because I was afraid of getting into an accident. I just want to stay here because its too high up in the sky. If I had been in a car or a plane, I wouldn't be here," she said.
"I have no regrets," she said. "I've done everything I wanted."
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Yadira Betances writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.
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Facts about centenarians:
80 percent are women
5 percent live in their own homes.
One-quarter do not have significant cognitive disorder, such as dementia.
Medical expenses are much lower than people in their 60s and 70s.
Characteristics shared include ability to adapt to changes, knowing how to deal with stress, independence, sense of humor, religious social interaction and enjoying simple pleasures.
Results from responses by more than 200 people in Greater Boston interviewed for New England Centenarian Study.
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