Selene O’Donnell dug into a small green box and pulled out a chocolate mint truffle.  “What is this?” she asked. Her son, Jim O’Donnell, explained it was a birthday gift. She popped one into her mouth. “I’ll try anything once,” she said matter-of-factly. “Everybody likes chocolate.”

As she relaxed in her bed on Sunday at ManorCare in Gig Harbor, O’Donnell had just finished celebrating birthday No. 103 with about 25 to 30 family members and friends who shared her special day.

“I greeted all my friends with a good deal of joy,” she said. “I was glad to know how they felt about me. You have to earn friends. They can’t be bought.”

O’Donnell was born Selene Gentleman in January 1909.

“It was the year the Spanish flu swept through the nation,” Jim said. “It was a worldwide epidemic. Her mother died of it when (Selene) was only 9 months old. She was raised by her grandparents.”

Selene has three boys, 25 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. She has lived through two world wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression.

Jim said she loves Manhattan cocktails.

“I was taking her out to bars when she was 101,” he said. “She still has a little Sherry now and then.

“Manhattans were started in the Prohibition,” he added. “They were drinking rot-gut whiskey, and in order to get the women to drink it, they had to sweeten it up with vermouth and maraschino cherries.”

At 103, Selene is sassy and witty with a great sense of humor. She had Skype conversations with three relatives in three different states on Sunday.

While she is amazed with the technological advances that have occurred during her lifetime, she wasn’t impressed with the space program and doesn’t think putting astronauts on the moon was a big thing.

“For the people that went to the moon, I’m sure it was a big thing for them,” she said.

Selene attributes her longevity to love and acceptance.

“I have lived for as long as I have because I have a love of children and people,” she said. “I don’t feel any different now than I felt when I was 85 or 75 by comparison. The biggest thing in life is acceptance. Some people will not accept things they have. I will accept what I have to.”

An avid walker throughout her life, Selene does lament not being able to enjoy those walks now.

“When you walk, you see so much more,” she said. “Driving in a car, everything goes by too fast. It’s very different for me lying in this bed and not getting around and seeing and doing things.”

Selene admits that her early childhood was rough being raised by grandparents.

“I was older than my years,” she said. “I had a heavier load than I was expected to at my age. It’s wrong to put too much on a child’s shoulders.”

When she was 14, she left school to work in a bank, where she worked for four years until she met her husband, Oswald.

“My husband was an easy man to love,” she said. “He was very kind, all the things you should be. He wasn’t self-centered; he cared for others.”

The centenarian doesn’t recall exactly when her husband died because she doesn’t want to.

“Those things you want to close the door against,” she said.

Oswald was an avid baseball fan, and they went to many games.

“I’ll always like baseball,” she said. “How could you ever lose your love of baseball?”

Selene rode English-style horseback in riding competitions in her youth. Her other joys include traveling, playing cards and making hats.

“I don’t make them as much as I used to, but I make one every now and then,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever lose that fun in making them and seeing the expressions on women’s faces when they wear them.”

Selene went on five cruises with her boyfriend, Ron Ingraham, the former owner and publisher of the Centralia newspaper. He died at 96. She has been to Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe. She likes Paris, London and Amsterdam.

“She gave the key to Niagara Falls to the mayor of Amsterdam,” Jim said.

Niagara Falls is where he grew up. He recalled going to his first movie with his mother — “Old Kentucky,” the first movie with sound. The movie cost 10 cents.

Jim said his mother and father gave him a happy childhood.

“They gave us a lot of guidance but allowed us to be ourselves,” he said. “Little kids didn’t have to worry about walking around back then. I loved that freedom.”



Lifestyles Coordinator and reporter Susan Schell can be reached at 253-853-9240 or by email at susan.schell@gateline.com.