BROWNSTOWN
If you want to know the secret to a long life, Edith Wayman spilled the beans.
Coffee beans, that is.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
When asked what she credits to recently turning 100, she said coffee could be it.
“I was the coffee maker at different places (she worked),” she said. “I started that when I went to the courthouse, and when I went to REMC, they waited on me in the morning to make the coffee.”
For the past five years, Wayman has been a resident of Hoosier Christian Village in Brownstown. Allison Sparks, the nursing facility’s activity director, said Wayman would still make the coffee there if she could.
“Now, the nurses make it for her,” Sparks said.
Any other secrets to share in hopes of living a long life?
“No, not that I know of,” Wayman said. “I kept busy and kept occupied with something I liked.”
Sue Peters said her mother has always said she can’t believe she’s as old as she is.
“You just live it and forget about it,” Wayman said of her thoughts on turning 100 on Sept. 10.
That day, Hoosier Christian Village celebrated Wayman with a surprise celebration from the staff and residents.
“We formed a line in the chapel and rang handbells and sang ‘Happy Birthday,’” Sparks said. “As she walked through, she was greeted by her family (donned in PPE thanks to COVID-19). They then had a private celebration in the activity room with cake and decorations.”
Residents and staff signed a posterboard birthday card for Wayman and gave her a bouquet of flowers. Her door also was decorated in honor of her 100th birthday.
Peters was joined at the party by her sister, Joetta Clampitt, and brother-in-law.
“It’s amazing,” Peters said of her mother turning 100. “She was surprised.”
Sparks was happy to be a part of it, too.
“It’s certainly an exciting, important day. Not everybody turns 100,” she said.
Growing up, Wayman and her family moved around a lot because of her father’s occupation.
“My dad was a Methodist minister, and we moved around every year or two,” she said.
She was born in Burns City and later lived in other places in Indiana before settling in Brownstown and graduating from high school in 1938.
“Our graduation was in the courthouse,” Wayman said. “The school at that time didn’t have any facilities for graduation.”
High school is where she met the man who became her husband, Ed. They were classmates.
“She graduated in May and got married in November,” Peters said.
Edith and Ed were married for more than 70 years until his death seven years ago.
Ed served in the U.S. Army for a couple of years, and while he was overseas, Edith and her two daughters lived with her parents, and she worked at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh.
“I went there during the war because my husband was gone,” Edith said. “He landed in England. They transferred him down to France and brought him back up through Europe to the northern part again.”
She then worked at the license branch for a while before working in the treasurer’s office in the courthouse in Brownstown.
Edith’s final job was at Jackson County REMC, where she remained until retiring in 1982.
“I had six girls under me part of the time,” she said. “We recorded the country people as they moved from one place to another. They had to call in to us and give us where they were moving to and all of that stuff.”
The work sometimes required working evenings or Sundays to check records for customers.
“You meet so many different people and talked to so many,” Edith said of what she liked about that job.
In retirement, Edith said she enjoyed going to Florida for a few weeks in the winter. One of her sisters used to live there.
Along with her two daughters, Edith has four great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
Edith now receives good care — and coffee — from the staff at Hoosier Christian Village.