* Isabelle Winters; Life Spanned 3 Centuries

Isabelle Winters, a retired nurse, died Saturday of pneumonia at Camarillo Convalescent Hospital. She was 102.

She had stopped counting birthdays years ago, and didn’t realize her life had spanned three centuries, said her daughter, Eileen Young, 79.

“She wouldn’t believe me when I would tell her she was 102 years old,” Young said. “She would refer to other people as being older.”

Born April 6, 1897, in Scotland, Winters and her parents immigrated to Canada just after the turn of the century.

In Fernie, British Columbia, she met Geoffrey Winters, a station agent for Canadian Pacific Railroad. After they married in 1916, she put aside her dreams of becoming a nurse in order to raise daughter Eileen and son Douglas.

Following her husband’s death from a heart attack in 1949, Winters began anew. When she couldn’t find a Canadian nursing program that would accept a 52-year-old applicant, she moved to Seattle, where a new nursing school needed students and was willing to take her.

After earning her license, she worked as a nurse until age 68, part of that time in Arizona. Then she switched careers, buying and running a motel in Bellingham, Wash., and enlisting the help of her daughter and son-in-law. Young said her mother moved into the nursing home in Camarillo about a decade ago.

Winters was active with the Methodist Church throughout her life, and enjoyed crocheting afghans.

Young said she often worried her mother would outlive her.

Part of the key to Winters’ longevity, her daughter said, was a focus on the future, and little regard for the past. She allowed herself one reminiscence: a fond childhood memory of watching wealthy travelers arrive in Edinburgh in fancy stagecoaches.

Another key was a healthy lifestyle. “My mother was an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type of person,” Young said. “She never fretted about anything. Her motto seemed to be, ‘Que sera, sera--whatever will be, will be.’

“She led a very healthy life. She didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat much in the way of dessert, and loved soup.”

Winters also is survived by two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A private service is planned.

In lieu of flowers, donations are being accepted through the Camarillo Convalescent Hospital Auxiliary, 205 Granada St., Camarillo CA 93010.