Mission Viejo Area Woman Celebrates 106th Birthday

MISSION VIEJO, CA — On November 4, Ladera Ranch's oldest resident turned 106. Wynotta Jane Flickinger McMichael's family invited all to her birthday party, celebrated at the Ladera Ranch Heritage Park Senior Apartment Homes, where she lives.

The crowd's main question for McMichaels? What is the secret to living such a long life?

“Your attitude,” the witty and sharp McMichael said. “It has a lot to do with it."

At the pink-decked out birthday party, McMichael was the belle of the ball.

Orange County Fire Authority's Station 58 firefighters arrived as a surprise to wish her a happy birthday.

“I thought they were the police and they were here to arrest me!” McMichael laughed. “They made me feel so important.”

Born at home in Pennsylvania in 1910, McMichael is the only surviving sibling of her four brothers and sister.

“I never thought I would get this old,” McMichael confessed. “I just never let myself get old!”

As a young girl, McMichael secretly dreamed of becoming an opera singer because of her love of singing in her local choir, writer Amy Spurgeon-Hoffman reported.

Life changed, she said, after a shift in family dynamics and McMichaels and her mother both attended and graduated nursing school in the same class.

“I decided I better be a nurse and not an opera singer,” she said.

McMichael worked as a registered nurse for the next six decades and even helped deliver her own grandson. She settled out West in Southern California and eventually became a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and is now “Ladera’s Grandmother.”

“She is smart as a whip and knows everything, even dates going back to 1914,” said Marlene, the daughter of a Heritage Park resident who lives across the hall from McMichael. “We feel like we have a grandmother again. She is everyone’s grandma!”

McMichael was presented with a plaque marking the momentous occasion from Orange County Fifth District Supervisor Lisa Bartlett.

“I LOVE LIFE AND I AM GOING TO LIVE IT!”

McMichael lives independently but has family and close friends help her with grocery shopping and errands.

She wakes up early and gets busy doing chores around her cozy, delicately and ornately decorated apartment home.McMichael said one thing she’s noticed is that oftentimes those who age begin to complain, something she just refuses to do.

“I just love life and I am going to live it!” McMichael said. “To me, life is a gift. It is up to you what you do with it. If you have a problem – just do the best you can."

Photos and story by Amy Spurgeon-Hoffman