Emelia De-Four is 99 years old

Emelia De-Four carefully places prayer candles into her shopping cart. She wakes up each morning and prays and reads Psalms from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. “I am blessed, I am blessed, I am so blessed.”   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

99 Cents Only Stores’ public relations and marketing coordinator Sarah Correa leads Emelia De-Four, 99, to the checkout counter after De-Four went on a shopping spree. Her total: $143.88.   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Emelia De-Four gets hugs from members of her family who came to the store to wish her well.   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

After about 45 minutes, Emelia De-Four came away with 135 items.   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Members of De-Four’s extended clan watch and cheer her on as she shops.   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Emelia De-Four unfurls her receipt from Friday’s shopping spree. She’d pick up three terra cotta flower pots, bags of onions and oranges, a bunch of bananas, a butternut squash, two dozen eggs, shredded Monterey Jack, four cans of Polar-brand coconut milk.   (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)