April 2, 2019, 6:53 am | Read time: 5 minutes
Can a young person absorb so much love in two years that it inspires them into old age? Part 2 of the FITBOOK series “The Secrets of the 100-Year-Olds.”
At 95, Theresia (†101) bought herself golden pumps
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The pumps Theresia* is wearing this morning are golden. She bought them for her 95th birthday, which was six years ago–just like the powder pink lace sheath dress that fits her slender body well. Even at 101, Theresia wouldn’t leave the house without nail polish–she’s stayed true to that. “I’ve always valued that. You have to have a little something nice!”
Theresia is a woman who has always placed great importance on her appearance. The clothing must suit the occasion. That was always the case for the master tailor who worked at the Munich State Opera, and it still is at 101. Resi (as she’s called in her Bavarian homeland and by her niece) is the village girl who became a worldly woman. And that’s not just because of her appearance.
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What made her life beautiful
It’s also due to her presence, her clear gaze, her bright eyes when she talks about what made her life beautiful: traveling! Japan, Hawaii, Argentina, Australia. “I could do what I wanted,” she says. Unusual for a woman who set the course for her life in the conservative 1950s. At a time when most women her age were expected to have children, be good housewives, and often experienced dull afternoons. But Theresia chose something else: adventure.
“Traveling makes life beautiful and easy. (…) You should travel as long as you can. It broadens the horizon.”
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Never fell in love again
In her mid-30s, Theresia met the love of her life. For Klaus, who ran two cinemas in Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse, she left her home. They married and were happy. “I had a wonderful husband.” Tears well up in Theresia’s eyes, and she breathes as one does when something feels beautiful and is taken away at the same moment. “Unfortunately, it was so short.” Klaus died of kidney failure after just two years together. After that, Theresia says, she could never fall in love again. She never entered into another committed relationship.
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Self-sufficient until 95
Until she was 95, Theresia more or less took care of herself in her home. Occasionally, a neighbor cooked for her, but she mostly did it herself. She also managed the steep stairs to the bedroom on the first floor “without batting an eye,” notes her niece Christine Winter. A fall and its consequences, since which Theresia has been in a wheelchair, made the move to a nursing home in 2015 unavoidable. Trading her beloved freedom for a few square meters of privacy was hard for the independent woman to accept, especially with care staff constantly appearing in her room.
No coffee, occasional wheat beer, never smoked
Yet Theresia loves to sleep in! Until noon! Theresia is a night owl, has never smoked, occasionally drinks wheat beer or a Prosecco, but never excessively. She never particularly liked coffee–and she doesn’t need it to get going. She never paid much attention to her diet: Theresia is even a fan of particularly fatty sausages.
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“I handle problems more generously today”
The only thing she takes regularly is mild blood pressure medication. And her vision is deteriorating, making it difficult to pursue her one great passion, reading, even with glasses. That’s why, she says, her life has become boring. There’s also the occasional feeling of being a burden to others. But her positive attitude helps her not to collapse. “I handle problems more generously today than before. You take life more lightly as you age,” she says. Turning 100 is fascinating and great–but on the other hand, it also leaves you quite alone.
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Postscript
*A few weeks after our filming, Theresia had a severe fall. She broke, among other things, her left shoulder and right forearm. She could not recover from the consequences of the fall and the surgery. “Not being able to use both hands took away her spirit,” says her niece Christine Winter. Theresia stopped eating and didn’t want to drink anymore.
Theresia died on March 9, 2019.
