Enjoying the party
Eleanora Redlinger was the star of the party, but she wasn’t fazed by all the fuss, deftly opening her birthday cards and enjoying every spoonful of her puréed vanilla cake.
Eleanora, better known as Nora to family and friends, was celebrating her 105th birthday, surrounded by two of her great-nieces, Carol Boardley and Joyce Schrader, two great-great-great nephews, Ken and Sam Shrader, Joyce’s husband, Byron, and her “family” at Kade Health and Rehabilitation Center in Canton Township, where Nora has lived for the past seven years.
When asked if she felt 105, Nora quickly replied, “Oh, no!”
But she did admit that she has “a little bit harder time now.”
“It’s not as easy to do everything. I get tired easily,” she said.
Nora was born Nov. 2, 1909, in Washington, the youngest of Albert and Emma Frank Redlinger’s five children. Her siblings, Irene Naser and Elmer, Albert and Edward Redlinger, are deceased.
Byron said Nora has told him repeatedly that she weighed 15 pounds at birth, but he’s had no way to verify her claim.
For many years, Nora lived with her parents and grandparents, and when her brief marriage to a carnival worker failed, she moved in with her brothers. However, she lived most of her life in a rowhouse on Spruce Alley, which she loved.
“She liked it because it was handy,” said Joyce, who takes care of her great-aunt’s personal needs. “She could walk to the bank, the grocery store and the George Washington Hotel.”
Nora was employed in the food service department of the hotel prior to her retirement in 1971, and she enjoyed baking.
But, Joyce said, Nora never learned how to drive, and she never voted.
“She never voted because her father said women don’t vote,” Joyce said.
When her home on Spruce Alley was razed, Nora moved to Thomas Campbell Apartments, where she helped serve lunches.
Nora is a member of First Lutheran Church, the Women Moose Lodge, the Women of the American Legion, the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, 40/8 and the Le Femntes Societe.
She also is relatively healthy. Nora takes two pills a day: a baby aspirin and medication for acid reflux. She has some difficulty seeing, hearing and swallowing, and her memory is fading.
“Some days I think she knows who we are,” Joyce said.
But she doesn’t let anything slow her down, manuevering her wheelchair through the halls with ease and attending SilverSneakers exercise class three times a week.
“She motors around pretty good,” Carol said.
When Bobbi Bauer, activities director at Kade, asked Nora what she wanted for her birthday lunch, Nora said, “I really like seafood.” After a slight pause, she said, “I sure could go for a good cold beer.”
And that’s how her party ended – with a glass of beer. Nonalcoholic, of course.