Betty Buechner Turns 100 on Thanksgving Day

It’s living a simple life that has led Betty Buechner, affectionately called “Lema” by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to reach the “young” age of 100.

“I remember the day you moved in here (the neighborhood),” she says to this writer, her neighbor. “I remember you, your wife, and I remember your baby (daughter Stefanie, now 21). I watched you move in.”

And over the past 24 years she’s bested me in a hated chore: shoveling snow. She still shovels her own, many times beating her neighbors, including me, out the door.

“Oh, I’m thankful I’ve had a good life, and I had a good husband,” she says as she hits the century mark today, Thanksgiving Day, 2011.  “I’m getting around. I suppose I’m handicapped. I do what I want. It’s not much, but I do what I want.”

Back in 1927, sixteen-year-old Betty and her younger sister, Margaret, were put on a ship bound for America from Scotland by their mother.  “God, you’re going back a long way,” she says, remembering that long-ago time of her life.

Two years later, she met her future husband, Harold (“Pop-Pop” to his grandchildren), who was a Bloomfielder. The two were wed when both were 19, and initially lived in a home that at the time stood near Bloomfield High School. The home was heated by a pot-bellied stove, and coal to fire it was delivered through the front window. When family members visited during the winter, everyone huddled into the room with the stove to keep warm.

The couple was married for 72 years until Harold’s 2003 passing. “Things have changed since he died. I miss him a lot.”

The Buechner’s had two daughters, Betty and Pat. Pat died in 1998. Betty Buechner currently has 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, with another on the way.

Daughter Betty Swick, 77, who lives in Red Bank with her husband of 57 years, reflects on her parent’s relationship. “My dad always adored my mother. And she was the boss. What mom said went. Daddy was a softie.”

The key to a good life, according to Betty Buechner?  “I don’t know,” she says. “I guess taking care of yourself.”  She’s never overeaten a day in her life, and her weight has been 110 pounds for years. She is also content with what she has, and has never been attracted to “stuff.”

And the origin of the “Lema” nickname?

“My cousin Jennifer found it hard to pronounce ‘Grandma’ when she was young, and she always called her ‘Lema,” claims granddaughter Patty Rower. “She (Betty) likes life, she likes her family.  She always tells me she feels good and she can’t complain.  She’s a doer.  She’s amazing.”

And she’s 100 years-old. Now that’s something to be thankful for.