Centenarian Marks ‘Clean’ Birthday

Ruth Hochmuth knew exactly what she wanted to do to celebrate her 100th birthday this weekend. She and a dozen of her fellow residents at Beverly Nursing and Rehabilitation Center trooped over to Lanark Park on Friday morning to clean it up for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

“I’ll do anything to give pleasure to anybody else,” said the spry woman who will become a centenarian Sunday.

As children played soccer and picnicked nearby, seniors were wheeled or walked around the park grounds, picking up paper, plastic straws and wrappers with long-handled picks or grabbers--a rehabilitation tool used to maneuver things on the ground for people who find it difficult to bend over.

Employees of the center were not surprised by Hochmuth’s birthday wish to get out and do something for others.

“She’s always been real active in the community,” said Chris Bruegger, director of rehabilitation. “This is her way of giving back. And she enjoys being out in the park.”

Patients at the center are often taken to the park as part of the rehabilitation process, including practice walks on the grassy terrain.

While on a brief break from her clean-up task, Hochmuth was asked if the secret to longevity was good, clean living.

“Sure, especially the ‘clean’ part,” she said.

Nursing aides tell stories about Hochmuth’s daily exercise routines on her makeshift ballet barre--really handrails along the center’s walls--and her enthusiasm for life. The woman they call “Ruthie” was crowned the center’s Queen of the Year in February.

The Indiana native came to California in 1916 and worked a few odd jobs in her life, but her favorite was tending her garden, she said.

Did her love for gardening and desire to make everything green and beautiful prompt the park beautification?

“Don’t we all like it clean and nice?” she asked.