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Deaf woman celebrates 100th with love for all — and ice cream - The Middletown Press : Serving Middletown, CT
“What’s your secret to living to 100?” her daughter asked her in sign language.
A wide smile spread across Margaret Lehtinen’s face, and she signed back: “No medicine. Not a lot of stress. Love everybody unconditionally.”
Lehtinen, who celebrated her 100th birthday Monday, greeted friends, family and fellow residents of Water’s Edge Center for Health & Rehabilitation with an outstretched palm with her middle and ring fingers folded down, the sign for “I love you.”
“She loves everybody,” said her granddaughter, Linda Macintyre. “She doesn’t judge,”
For 100 years, Lehtinen, who was born deaf, has not heard a sound, but she loves to dance and has always been the life of any party, said her daugther, Carol Gauthier of Cromwell.
“She couldn’t hear the music, but she was right there with it,” she said.
Born Margaret C. Mertz Dec. 29, 1908, she married John Olavi Lehtinen in 1937. Together they enjoyed 53 years of marriage before his passing in 1990. They had three children, and Lehtinen is the proud grandmother of four and great-grandmother of six.
On her 100th birthday, she said her greatest pride has been her “babies.”
“Every day I come here, she says ‘this is my baby,’” Gauthier said. “She is very proud of her family.”
Gauthier said her mother led by example, teaching her to love unconditionally.
“She’s a wonderful mother,” Gauthier said. “She always saw that we were taken care of first.”
Lehtinen has also taught those around her a great deal about faith. When one of her three children died at the age of 16, “she resolved it by saying ‘God needs young angels too,’” Gauthier said.
“Her faith is like no one else’s,” Macintyre said. “She has faith that everything happened for a reason.”
Macintyre said her grandmother, who has an uncanny ability to impersonate people immediately upon meeting them, should have been an actress.
She is also extremely skilled at reading lips, her granddaughter said. As kids, the grandchildren would argue in the back of the car, and she would watch them in the rearview mirror, knowing exactly what they were saying.
“As kids, we’d forget how well she read lips,” Macintyre said.
For a while, the grandchildren were convinced she could indeed hear and was fooling them all along. Macintyre and her sister waited until their grandmother was not looking and started screaming at the top of their lungs. Of course, she did not hear them, but the kids quickly learned their grandmother always knew what they were up to.
Lehtinen has been living at Water’s Edge for the last 13 years. She is originally from Michigan.
Lehtinen is also known for her hospitality, cooking and baking. She has a sweet tooth, and she loves pizza and beer.
She also enjoys ice cream, which was served at the celebration.
Her energy, though, comes from interaction with her friends and family, who came from as far away as California to celebrate her birthday.
“People — that’s her best medicine,” Gauthier said.
Well, that — and ice cream.
“What’s your secret to living to 100?” her daughter asked her in sign language.
A wide smile spread across Margaret Lehtinen’s face, and she signed back: “No medicine. Not a lot of stress. Love everybody unconditionally.”
Lehtinen, who celebrated her 100th birthday Monday, greeted friends, family and fellow residents of Water’s Edge Center for Health & Rehabilitation with an outstretched palm with her middle and ring fingers folded down, the sign for “I love you.”
“She loves everybody,” said her granddaughter, Linda Macintyre. “She doesn’t judge,”
For 100 years, Lehtinen, who was born deaf, has not heard a sound, but she loves to dance and has always been the life of any party, said her daugther, Carol Gauthier of Cromwell.
“She couldn’t hear the music, but she was right there with it,” she said.
Born Margaret C. Mertz Dec. 29, 1908, she married John Olavi Lehtinen in 1937. Together they enjoyed 53 years of marriage before his passing in 1990. They had three children, and Lehtinen is the proud grandmother of four and great-grandmother of six.
On her 100th birthday, she said her greatest pride has been her “babies.”
“Every day I come here, she says ‘this is my baby,’” Gauthier said. “She is very proud of her family.”
Gauthier said her mother led by example, teaching her to love unconditionally.
“She’s a wonderful mother,” Gauthier said. “She always saw that we were taken care of first.”
Lehtinen has also taught those around her a great deal about faith. When one of her three children died at the age of 16, “she resolved it by saying ‘God needs young angels too,’” Gauthier said.
“Her faith is like no one else’s,” Macintyre said. “She has faith that everything happened for a reason.”
Macintyre said her grandmother, who has an uncanny ability to impersonate people immediately upon meeting them, should have been an actress.
She is also extremely skilled at reading lips, her granddaughter said. As kids, the grandchildren would argue in the back of the car, and she would watch them in the rearview mirror, knowing exactly what they were saying.
“As kids, we’d forget how well she read lips,” Macintyre said.
For a while, the grandchildren were convinced she could indeed hear and was fooling them all along. Macintyre and her sister waited until their grandmother was not looking and started screaming at the top of their lungs. Of course, she did not hear them, but the kids quickly learned their grandmother always knew what they were up to.
Lehtinen has been living at Water’s Edge for the last 13 years. She is originally from Michigan.
Lehtinen is also known for her hospitality, cooking and baking. She has a sweet tooth, and she loves pizza and beer.
She also enjoys ice cream, which was served at the celebration.
Her energy, though, comes from interaction with her friends and family, who came from as far away as California to celebrate her birthday.
“People — that’s her best medicine,” Gauthier said.
Well, that — and ice cream.