Hilda Young, 102, Warsaw, has lived through 19 presidents, the Great Depression and two world wars, among many more historical events throughout her lifetime, though she doesn't remember some of them.

On May 17, 1899, she was born in Hastys, a small town just southwest of Milford. She now lives near Warsaw on her farm and has lived here for 64 years.

Young has three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, three step-great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.

She was a little nervous about being in the newspaper.

"They won't know me now because I don't have any hair," Young said of friends seeing her picture in the paper.

Her son, Junior, said she still washes her hair, makes her bed and does some dusting.

"She has home health care nurses that come in and help her," Donna Brett, friend and nurse, said. "I'm one of those nurses."

Young said she isn't sure how she feels. "I've got so many things wrong. I don't feel very good sometimes," she said.

"When I first started working (with her)," Brett recalled, "Hilda would say: 'If I could just make it to 100 - to the new millennium.'" The next goal for Young was 101, she said.

Junior said she told her doctor before she turned 100, "if she couldn't live to see 100, she was going to fire him."

"She got a birthday card on her 100th birthday from Bill and Hilary Clinton," Junior said.

In her younger years, Young worked at dime stores, Junior said. "She's been through 19 presidents in her life. She saw the year Kennedy was assassinated (and) when Nixon got out of the White House."

"Different things in history I guess, but I can't remember," Young added.

But something Young does remember is walking in fields to school as a kid and riding bobsleds.

"As a kid I remember riding to the old ice houses," Young said with a smile. "We come to Warsaw one time and that water was way deep and we were in a buggy. I was just a little girl."

"I lived on a farm, you know," she continued. "I can remember my folks come back to Warsaw to see some president coming through on the train. I don't know who it was anymore."

Young said she thought it was one of the Roosevelts.

"It was before my time," Junior said, laughing. "I don't know (who it was)."

Young also lived through the Great Depression and two world wars.

"I was too little to know too much about that," she said.

She did remember going to the Indianapolis State Fair as a little girl, which she thought was fun.

"I've always been on a farm. I've never got very far, anyway," Young said. "I've been a few places, but not many. I've been to Michigan and Illinois a couple of times."

"She never went nowhere special on vacations," Junior said. "She stayed home and helped on the farm."

She said life is "different" today.

"The kids are different," Junior added.

"It's getting too high for me," Young said.

"The prices and all that," Junior clarified.

Back in Young's day, Junior said, she could get probably 10 bags of groceries for around $50. Today, he said it would probably cost a couple hundred dollars.

Some of Young's favorite programs to watch on television with her son are "Walker, Texas Ranger," racing and golf.

"Whatever I watch she usually watches," Junior said.

Young said her son helps her out quit a bit.

"He's been doing pretty good," she said. "He does all the cooking. He sees that I get my medicine. Home health ladies come in and clean me up twice a week."

After going through some of her memories, she was back to worrying about being in the newspaper.

She was worried that people will read the story "and probably pass out - people will think I'm lying."

"What I've told is the truth," Young said.

Young said she is going to get even with Brett. "I don't want my picture in the paper," she told Brett.

"She's all worried - all fired up," Junior said about being in the newspaper. "She'll probably be mad at Donna for a long time."

"I'm taking it easy," Young said of her life. And the best way to live is to laugh, she said.

"If you put all that in the paper," Young said to me, "then I'll read the paper and pass out."

"No, they think it's great you made it to 102," Brett assured Young. "Not many people do that."

"She's pretty happy," Brett said.

Brett said Young lives her life one year at a time, and each year she looks forward to her next.

"She's a funny lady. She's still got her wits," Brett said. "She's still queen of her castle."

"If there's anything forgotten," Junior said. "It'll stay forgotten."

"Now listen," Young said one last time, "if a lot of people get sick (from reading this story), it won't be my fault. It'll be you and hers," she said as she pointed to Brett and me. [[In-content Ad]]