105 And Sharp As A Tack

According to Loraine Ogden, the worst part about being 105 years old is being too weak to walk and write. “Living in a chair isn’t easy. Everything falls on the floor,” she said. Ogden was mentioned in a Gazette article last year about centenarians living at Cottage Grove Place. The online version of the article found its way to one of Ogden’s distant cousins living in California, Janet Mercurio, who began trading letters with Ogden. The strength is gone from Ogden’s hands, rendering her too weak to write her letters to Mercurio herself, so she dictates them to her caretakers at Cottage Grove, where she still lives. “I wish had more strength,” Ogden said, carefully adjusting herself in her chair.