It Took 100 Years, but They Made the Club

Among them, they are 402 years old. And Saturday, they were inducted into a very special club for centenarians, honored for their long and healthy lives.

Juana Manzar, 99, Flossie H. Brown, 104, Harriet Fiske, 99, and Edith Johannessen, who will be 100 on Wednesday, all were feted with music, plaques, praise and a cake as they became the first members of Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center’s Century Club.

The club was created to honor people who are 100 or older or who will turn a century old this year.

“People aren’t realizing that [centenarians] are one of the fastest-growing populations,” said Dawn Anderson, the club’s creator and a marketing coordinator for the medical center. “This little segment of people aged 100-plus is growing threefold, and we just want to honor them for reaching this important milestone.”

As part of the festivities, a Fountain Valley City Council member, a local Chamber of Commerce representative and a proclamation from Gov. Pete Wilson’s office congratulated the club and its members.

“I’m 65 and the eldest on the City Council, but here, I feel like a child,” City Councilman Guy Carrozzo said before saluting the medical center for establishing the club. He said the inductees serve as role models and deserve to be recognized.

The women said they were grateful for the party, and they thanked God for their long lives.

“I’ve had a wonderful life,” said Brown, of Santa Ana. She raised nine children and has 37 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.

Brown, who still dances, said that through all the hard and happy times, “God has taken care of me.”

Her 78-year-old daughter, Claretta L. Kent, called Brown a “living miracle.”

“She’s still up on her feet and she eats anything she wants,” Kent said. “It’s amazing.”

Relatives of Fiske, who lives in a convalescent hospital in Huntington Beach, said they are proud of her as well. “She’s everybody’s favorite aunt,” said Leona Kaa, a niece-in-law.

That’s because “I’ve always had a good life with wonderful parents and wonderful friends,” Fiske said.

Johannessen, who also resides in a Huntington Beach convalescent hospital, said that living a long life requires not smoking or sun-bathing. “Smoking and lying on the hot sand gives you wrinkles,” she said.

Her only daughter, Dorothy Ensign, 76, laughed, saying that Johannessen, a widow who was married four times, “is looking for No. 5.”

Johannessen’s “feistiness keeps her alive,” her granddaughter, Debbie Ensign, said.

Having passed or about to pass their 100th year, the honorees said they look forward to the future.

Manzar, who emigrated from Cuba 29 years ago, said she is working on becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. “That’s my dream,” she said.

The women’s relatives said they were proud of each one.

Anthony W. Kent, one of Brown’s grandsons, echoed the sentiments of the other relatives. “My grandmother has always been the glue and the mold that has kept the whole family together,” he said.

Said Manzar’s daughter, Elsie Manzar: “I’ve got the best mother in the world. She made sure we took the right path and she always gives us good advice.”

And what do all four centenarians agree is the key to longevity?

“Obey your parents and you will live a tranquil and long life,” Juana Manzar said.