At 108, she has memories as bittersweet as dark chocolate
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- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:38:47 -0400
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, USA
Thursday, October 18, 2007
At 108, she has memories as bittersweet as dark chocolate
By Margaret Smykla
Thursday, October 18, 2007 - Today is Agnes Wetzel's 108th birthday. Her late
husband, Lemuel R. Wetzel, in photo at right, served with the Signal Corps in
the National Guard's 28th Division in World War I.Agnes M. Wetzel can recall
the details of her courtship with her husband as vividly as she can recite the
names and dosages of the daily medicines she takes.
The difference is, that courtship took place 90 years ago.
"I guess I've had a long time to think about it,'' said the Bethel Park woman.
Today, Mrs. Wetzel will celebrate her 108th birthday by lunching at Peters
Place in Collier with her daughter, Bette Anne Wetzel.
"I have everything I could use and more,'' she said of not wanting any gifts --
except maybe her favorite guilty pleasure, dark chocolate, to satisfy her sweet
tooth.
Legally blind, she enjoys listening to radio talk shows.
"I like to know what's going on,'' she said, although the picture painted of
today's humankind leaves her nostalgic for simpler times.
"Now all people think about is money and cars,'' she said.
Mrs. Wetzel was born in 1899, and grew up on Sylvania Street in Montooth, a
city neighborhood on a hillside above what is now the Liberty Tunnels.
She remembers how the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 hit home because a friend
had a cousin whose daughter, a waitress on the ship, lost her life on the
ill-fated voyage.
After graduating from the two-year Ralston Business High School which had a
secretarial curriculum, Mrs. Wetzel went to work for the Standard Life
Insurance Co. at Fourth and Smithfield streets for $72 a month.
Six months later she left for the Pennsylvania Railroad at 10th Street and Penn
Avenue, and a raise to $128 per month. She rode the street car to work for 5
cents, and ate lunch every day in the Fifth Avenue Arcade for 10 cents.
The first date with her future husband, Lemuel Wetzel, in early 1917, was a
concert at McKinley Park, for which he promptly stood her up after
over-sleeping.
Later that year, Mr. Wetzel, a Pennsylvania National Guardsman, enlisted in the
Army as the United States entered World War I.
"By enlisting, he could choose what division he wanted to be in,'' said Mrs.
Wetzel of staying a step ahead of the draft.
Although they were separated, the romance continued through letters he sent her
from the trenches on the front lines of major battles throughout France.
A Nov. 25, 1918, clipping the family saved from The Pittsburgh Post commended
his 28th Division "for its gallantry under fire and its splendid work.''
The couple eventually married, moved to Brookline and raised two children.
Mrs. Wetzel worked as a secretary at Hargrove Co. in the 1950s and remained
active in the Eastern Star social organization into her senior years.
"There was nobody like her,'' said Ms. Wetzel of her mother. "She was always
there for us.''
Mr. Wetzel, who retired as a real estate broker, died of congestive heart
failure in 1976. The Wetzels' son, Lewis, a retired chief metallurgist at
Copperweld Steel, died from throat cancer in 2001.
Mrs. Wetzel, who never drank or smoked and ate lots of fruits and vegetables,
credits her long life "to my God, my prayers, my wonderful daughter, and my
wonderful doctor.''
Female genetics also play a role: Her mother and sister lived to ages 98 and
90, respectively, while her father and five brothers died before age 60.
"She's very optimistic,'' said her physician, Dr. Nalina Prabhu, of St. Clair
Hospital, despite the health problems which come with advanced age.
"And she's easy to take care of as she does everything you tell her to do,''
she said.
Besides her daughter, Mrs. Wetzel enjoys the company of her two grandsons and
three great-granddaughters, and likes to stay abreast of world and cultural
changes.
While Mrs. Wetzel's early secretarial career was centered on manual
typewriters, she remains undaunted by the prospect of using computers in
today's offices.
"I could do it without looking,'' she said.
First published on October 18, 2007 at 6:40 am
Margaret Smykla is a freelance writer.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07291/826221-55.stm
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