It's hard to imagine when you see her, but Bertha Sisk will be 104 years old Sunday.

A resident of the Assisted Living facility at Miller's Merry Manor, Warsaw, since April 2005, Sisk reflected on her life Tuesday, including sharing some stories from her past.

When she was around 11 years old, she said, "I was visiting a friend, and for some reason, we had a gun. She showed me an old horse that hadn't run for years. I started shooting the gun, and the horse took off and ran for the first time in several years."

She was born Dec. 9, 1902, to Gern and Ida Johnson in a small town in North Dakota. Their favorite place to hang out was the Canfield Store that sold everything from clothing to groceries. Sisk said, "My early travel days were in a 'surrey with the fringe on top.'"

When she was 3, she was struck with Polio. Luckily, the local doctor didn't believe in braces. "The doctor wouldn't go for braces, so my mother rubbed me twice a day for an hour at a time." She recovered and started school at age 6. She still is able to walk some with a walker every day. She believes it might be the polio that has finally slowed her down a little.

Her parents encouraged her and her sister, Hazel, to take voice and music lessons. She remembers how proud her father was one year when she was asked to sing at three different churches for Christmas. She also played the piano.

Her folks originally were from around this area, and in about 1909, they took the train and moved back to Plymouth. She attended Webster School. She had two brothers and one sister, and one brother and a half-sister are still living, both in their 80s.

Bertha met her future husband, Cecil Sisk, at his parents' home in the 1920s when she was 17. She said, "His sister Trilva and I were good friends." They dated a couple years, then married. They adopted a son, Robert, who also found an interest in music and entertained throughout most of his adult life.

When Bertha and Cecil celebrated their 50th anniversary with a mass, Robert sang "Ava Maria." Being the proud mother, Bertha said, "Never had it been sung with such reverence." Cecil died in 1972 and Robert died in 1994.

They lived in Plymouth, moved to Marion, then came to Warsaw, where Cecil went into business for himself. He owned West End Buffing and Polishing Co., at the west end of Market Street, which did work for the orthopedic companies.

Bertha and Cecil traveled to Hawaii, Canada, toured the coast of California and the New England states. She drove a car and said, "I've driven from coast to coast." She voluntarily gave up driving eight or nine years ago and doesn't think people her age should be driving.

In 1973, she toured Italy, France and England. In 1982, she settled in Winter Haven, Fla., until she moved back to the area to live at Miller's Assisted Living.

She has many nieces and nephews around here who visit her regularly. She said, "Since I've been here, I've had 116 different guests."

When asked about the most memorable thing that's happened to her, she said, "The biggest event was my 100th birthday. Connie Rufenbarger had charge of everything."

A devout Catholic, when Bertha wrote her biography at the request of her family, at the end, she said, "Thanks to God who has helped me through my tribulations all these years, and may He bless each of you as well."

When naming Bertha Resident of the Month in the July newsletter for Miller's Assisted Living, they said, "Bertha is an inspiration to us all, and we are very pleased that she chose us to be part of her family." [[In-content Ad]]