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Celebration honors Nations on her 101st birthday

By Rose Hooper
Two sets of five generations were present Jan. 29 at Mountain Trace Nursing Center to help Bessie Nations (seated) celebrate her 101st birthday. From left are her great-great-grandson Cody Lovelace held by great-granddaughter Carla Lovelace, grandson Charles Nations and son Weldon Nations.

Family and friends describe Bessie Carr Nations "as the finest person in the world."

Practically all of the family and tons of friends showed up at Mountain Trace Nursing Home Jan. 29 to help celebrate her 101st birthday.

"As usual, she has the most beautiful smile on her face," said great-granddaughter Carla Lovelace.

"She is the most extraordinary woman I have ever met," said grandson Jim Garrett.

Now 61, Garrett said his grandmother helped raise him. "I used to hunt and fish and no matter what I'd bring home, she would clean and cook it. It was great growing up around her. We always had fun, lots of laughter and being the first grandson, I felt more like her own son than her grandson."

Nations' daughter Helen Evrett said "growing up we had plenty of everything, plenty of good food from the garden, plenty of chickens, pigs, cows... and plenty of love. What we didn't have was plenty of money, but we never knew we were poor."

In this set of five generations, Nations (front right) is joined (from left) by great-granddaughter Robie Smith (seated), great-great-grandson Rance Smith, grandson Jerry Evrett and daughter Helen Evrett. - Herald photos by Rose Hooper

Displaced by the National Park Service, which paid them $3 an acre for their farm, Bessie and her husband, James, whom she married Dec. 27, 1917, moved to Whittier. A widow since 1980, Nations remained at the home place until a month ago.

"She wanted to stay in her own home as long as she could and just recently she chose to move to Mountain Trace," said daughter Geneva Garrett. "She had a bad bout of pneumonia, her eyesight is failing, and she realized she needed full-time care."

But nothing slows down Nations' constant cheerful spirit, say those who know her.

"She always has a positive attitude and always has something uplifting to say," said Geneva. "She is a kind and caring person and has not changed one bit throughout the years."

Helen and Geneva, along with Weldon Nations and Frankie Sheehan, praise their mother for "always teaching us to do the right thing." Another lesson the four learned from their mother was "don't ever be lazy."

"Yes, I taught my children to work," Nations said during her birthday party. "If a young person isn't working by the time they are 14, they will never amount to much."

If you ask her how she lived past a century, Nations will say, "You just have to keep working; don't ever slow down."

When everybody wanted to know how it felt to be 101, Nations, with that ever-engaging smile, replied, "Not much different."

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