At 105, Tiverton Woman Smiles at Life, Lives With No Regrets

Evelyn Waite says she thinks laughter can be as contagious as the measles.

"I like to laugh and when something makes me laugh, I repeat it," the Tiverton woman said at her home this week.

Waite, who celebrates her 105th birthday on March 7, says she's enjoyed life because of its variety. There's a party in her honor at White's of Westport this Sunday, March 4.

Born in Assonet, MA, Waite is part of a family of nine. Her background?

"I'm just a damn Yankee," she said.

Waite spent her childhood growing up on the farm in Assonet. Besides not having a computer or television, the farmhouse did not have electricity when she was little. She added that she's never been fond of taking medication, especially with all that is prescribed today.

"If you had a sore throat, mom rubbed goose grease on you," she said. "She always had a remedy. You didn't run to the doctor for nothing."

Growing up, working as a nurse

Waite said she had the best childhood she could ever have. She went on to the Rhode Island School of Design, then left, taking a job as a practicing nurse. Waite traveled to homes in Freetown and Fall River. Next, she became a messenger at the old historic Truesdale Hospital on Highland Road in Fall River.

"I walked from one station to another," she said. "I walked all the time. That's why I'm alive right now."

She recalls an experience where a doctor she knew, who died recently, let her watch an open heart surgery.

"It was such a privilege," Waite said. "I couldn't imagine what the human heart looked like."

Moving to Tiverton

A birthday card from U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, sits on Waite's dining room table at her Crandall Avenue home. They sent it when she turned 100. Valentine's cards and birthday cards are mixed in, with family scrapbooks scattered throughout her home. In some, a relative cleverly Photoshopped Waite's image onto iconic celebrity cut-outs and added witty statements. She is cared for by friends and neighbors, and has family in Virginia, South Carolina and Florida. Waite has traveled to Hawaii, Europe, Bermuda and Aruba.

She said she loves listening to comedians Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Gracie Allen and My Little Margie on CD.

The centenarian never had children. Her second marriage, to Warren Waite of Tiverton, was in 1956. He was a bricklayer and plasterer at the naval base in Newport. He got cancer of the larynx and had a stoma put in. Evelyn said Warren would go fishing in the Sakonnet River and bring home so much lobster, fish and eels. He died in 1975.

"I thought I was going to die the next day," she said about how she felt after his death. "He spoiled me rotten."

No regrets

Waite has a bad hip and uses a wheelchair. She also has macular degeneration in her eyes and is hard of hearing. But she's also sharp and clever, with a great recollection of her experiences. Once, she worried about possibly getting Alzheimer's when she couldn't remember a person's name, then woke up in the middle of the night when it came to her.

"I always wonder what's going to kill me," she said.

All the walking Waite did for work hardened her heart, she said. She adds that getting good sleep and eating fresh food also contributed to her longevity. Living with no regrets has helped, too.

"In all my life, whatever the circumstance was," she said, "I did what was best at that time."