ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Since 1926, the U.S. has seen the rise of improved technology and medicine, new car models, multiple wars, and multiple fashion trends.

And Liberal’s Helen Cody, who will be turning 100 on Oct. 28, has seen them all. And as Cody tells it, longevity seems to run in her family.

“I had four brothers, and they all lived to be at least 90, but I did have a brother who was killed in World War 2. My mother lived to be 101, and I had two sisters, one of whom lived to be 104,” Cody said. “My mom's family was originally from Indiana, and my dad’s family eventually ended up in North Dakota or South Dakota. When they got married, they left the Amish Church and then went to the Mennonite Church, and then they later left the Mennonite Church and went to the Methodist Church, which I still go to every so often, though not as much in the past few months. And then I had four children of my own. Three of them are still alive, but I had a son who got killed while working on an oil rig when he was 23. I’ve got eight grandchildren, one of whom was named Miss USA in 1991, and multiple great-grandchildren. I was raised in a happy family. We had a lot of fun. That's when you would eat breakfast, dinner, and supper every day instead of going for fast food every meal. And then for holidays, we would all go to my parents’ next door and gather, and all the kids would be running around having fun, so those were great times.”

Cody graduated from Liberal High School in 1945 and later turned her green thumb into a 31-year career at a local greenhouse.

“I remember when we were kids, she would have to be there for holidays. She would have to be there like maybe at 3 a.m. or earlier to get all of the flowers done so they could get them delivered for that holiday,” Cody’s daughter, Melody Hofferber, said. “That was the only flower shop around at that time and they also served all the little towns around, so they were very busy.”

“I remember she would go to work, and then she would run home to get us up for school, but that was when we were a little older,” Sherry Skinner, another one of Cody’s daughters, added. “Our grandma lived right next door and would be around for us when we were younger, but as we got older, Mom would run home and get us up, fix us breakfast, and then she'd be back to work.”

And as Hofferber and Skinner tell it, plants are not Cody’s only area of expertise.

“She would live on sugar, and you know they say sugar is what the worst thing you can eat. But Mama's known for her pies, and they’re the best pies I've ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot of pies,” Hofferber said with a laugh. “And a lot of our friends are still always asking, ‘Could your mom make me a coconut cream pie?’ or some other flavor, which I think is hilarious. I remember there was one time somebody asked her, ‘How do how do you live so long and so well?’ And she said ‘I never eat anything green.’”

“Our grandma, she was a really good cook, and she taught just about everyone in the family to cook because there were seven children, so there was a lot of cooking going on,” Skinner added.

Cody said one of the major upgrades she has seen in her life is with automobiles.

“My parents had an old Model T, and we would have warming bottles or something you'd put on your feet in order to keep warm in the winter in that car,” Cody said. “Either that, or we’d all be extra bundled up because cars didn’t have heat and air conditioning like they do today.”

The family will be celebrating Cody’s birthday with a party from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the First United Methodist Church at 116 W. 3rd Street and Hofferber said she has already been getting been getting some birthday greetings.

“Shannon Francis loves my mom, and he had messaged me on Facebook and asked ‘What do you think about me asking our Congress people to see if any of them would like to send her birthday greetings for her 100th birthday?’” Hofferber said. “I said okay, and she's already  gotten greetings from him and I believe Sen. Jerry Moran, which I thought was really sweet. And anyone who would want to send cards or anything like that can send them to her house at 915 N. Prospect Ave., I’m sure she’d get a kick out of that.”

Cody said she has enjoyed good health throughout her life, which Hofferber and Skinner said she is grateful for.

“She's been in the hospital to have all four of us kids, and then one other time she had a hand problem, but that’s been it as far as any major health issues,” Hofferber said. “And it’s only since she broke her hip last April that she’s had to start taking any kind of medicine, so she’s quite a specimen. We try to take good care of her, but it's amazing she can still live in her home. She does have a great-grandson who lives here, and he does help her too, so it’s great she has someone here. I took her for her first checkup, I think it was six weeks out, and her surgeon, Dr. [Firas] Kawtharani, did the X-rays, and told me, ‘Your mother has healed better than a lot of my 65-year-olds, better and faster.’ And she’d been doing some physical therapy at that time and working on all of that. So there’s something in the genes, I guess.”

“She actually can still drive in the daytime, but she doesn't anymore. Her license expires on the 28th of this month, and after that, no more,” Skinner said. “She drove everywhere until probably a year ago, and even then, her primary drive would be to the senior center to play cards, but she hasn’t done that for a little bit. Sometimes she has trouble sitting for a long time, but she'll use the walker every now and then, or otherwise, she'll use her cane and her hand or some other support.”

Overall, Hofferber said, she hopes her mother’s legacy includes her selflessness.

“My mom and my stepfather, who we all consider our dad, were very frugal. He was in the oil field, and she worked at the flower shop, and even with four kids, they managed to save money and did so pretty well,” Hofferber said. “I do remember Mom would wear Keds, which were really popular shoes back in the day. I remember she would wear those, and even when they started getting holes in them, she would still wear them. She wanted us to have what we needed. She has never thought about herself, she always thinks about other people and what they need.”