Dale Says

Clara was pulling weeds outside in 90-degree heat when we called on her. She quickly gave it up, came inside, and entertained us. We had to talk a little louder than normal so she could pick up what we said, but she doesn’t wear hearing aids. She doesn’t use a cane or walker, either, and she doesn’t take any medicine. She was going to the doctor every six months for check-ups after she finished her chemo, but now her physician says her she only needs to come back if something goes wrong. Clara Joyner turned 100 on October 11. It’s not a big deal, according to her. She says she doesn’t feel 100 years old, and she certainly doesn’t look nor act like a centenarian. But she is. That puts her in pretty rare company. There are only 53,000 people her age in the U.S. and only 500 in her home state of Oklahoma. Born and raised in Mississippi, Clara grew up in a strict, but loving family. She and her sister were close, and they both took piano lessons. “We never did play the same song, though,” she says in a southern drawl, because her mother didn’t want to listen to the same songs over-and-over from both of them. She studied music, taught piano for years until her children were in school, and then went back to college, got a teaching certificate, and taught music. When we asked Clara if she would play for us, she popped right up from her chair, walked to the piano, sat down, and started playing a classical song. “What am I playing?” she asked. At first I thought she was testing us, but she wasn’t – she really didn’t know what the song was. “It was in my head,” she explained, so she played it – faultlessly. Most of her playing is from memory, and most of it is faultless. She can drift from song to song, sort of a memory medley. Clara can play just about any song, whether she’s ever played it before or not, if you hum or sing a little of the tune. She plinks out the melody with her right hand as you sing and then adds the left hand. Sure, she hits a few wrong notes, but then she “gets it” and she starts to play the song faultlessly. Generally, she plays from memory, but she also plays duets from sheet music with her daughter. She does some of her own gardening, although she has hired a gardener to help. Following a recent fall, she also added a part-time caretaker who helps her clean house and cook. “I don’t really need help,” Clara told us, “But I’m starting to get used to the idea, and now I kind of like having a clean house that I didn’t clean myself and eating meals I didn’t cook for myself.” Clara says she doesn’t feel old. “As long as I have my mind,” she says, tapping her temple “I feel like I did years ago.” She says she thought by this age she would have “one foot in the grave and the other foot would be slipping,” but that’s not how she feels. She lost her husband a couple of years ago, and she misses him terribly. A lot of people her age would have given up, but she carried on, finished chemo treatments and continued to be active. She still reads a lot, but not a book a week like she used to, because she says her eyes are starting to fail. She still goes to church on Sunday when she can get a ride, and she still plays musical handbells with a group on Fridays. “We play for lots of people; like schools, and hospitals … and for the old folks,” she adds with a wink. And Clara still pulls weeds in her garden. “But I can’t keep up with them,” she says. “I need to get out there more often.”