Three thriving centenarian sisters in Kansas flaunt their triple-digit ages
Three centenarian sisters from Kansas are flaunting their triple-digit ages as the “baby” among them turned 100 last month.
Frances Kompus is edging closer to her big sisters — Julia Kopriva, 104, and Lucy Pochop, 102 — but of course will never quite catch up.
Kopriva, born on Nov. 5, 1917, leads the way, with Pochop, second, born on June 11, 1919. Little sister Kompus turned 100 on Nov. 11. For decades, they have dubbed themselves the Three Musketeers, Pochop’s daughter Valyne Pochop told USA Today. But Kopriva still gets to be boss.
“They’ve always been involved in each other’s lives,” Valyne Pochop said. “That’s just pretty amazing.”
Now widowed, with children, grandchildren and even some great-grandchildren, the three live in adjoining apartments in the same retirement community.
They recently reminisced to KSNW-TV about their childhood years walking nearly two miles to and from school, trudging the fields and tending crops with their father on the family farm, in a time before tractors — and, until the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, no electricity.
“We always had homemade bread, just plain potatoes, and gravy and meat,” Kopriva told KSNW. “With those cookstoves, that was hard to bake, the temperature was hard to keep. Even if it didn’t come out good, we still ate it.”
Some of that meat was hogs that they butchered themselves.
Having lived through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, among other eras, they did have a few tidbits of wisdom to pass on — mainly focused on eating well, walking a lot and keeping the faith.
“We eat well, right?” Kopriva told KSNW, advising people to thank your parents and grandparents, keep your faith strong, “pray, and try to stay out of mischief.”
Those grandparents had immigrated from Czechoslovakia and went on to farm in Rawlins County, halfway between Denver and Salina, Kansas. With no brothers, it was up to them to work the farm. Today Lucy Pochop’s son, Victor Holub, still farms the family homestead, which was established in 1917, according to USA Today.
The family spoke only Czech at home at first, until “determined little kid” Kopriva, while in the first grade, spent a school year teaching herself and her relatives how to speak English, Rosalie Ross, editor of the Rawlins County Square Deal newspaper in Atwood, told USA Today.
Kompus celebrated her milestone in style at a party at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which all three had attended growing up, then been christened, confirmed and even married in. About 50 people joined her in the northwest Kansas town of Beardsley.
“I loved it,” Kompus told USA Today. “It was a good party.”
She was following her own best advice, as she told USA Today — to be social, walk lots, and “keep going.”
Theresa Braine
New York Daily News
U.S.A.
VIJESTI
Tri uspješne sestre stogodišnjakinje u Kansasu hvale se svojom stogodišnjom dobi
Autorica THERESA BRAINE
DNEVNE VIJESTI NEW YORK |
6. prosinca 2021. U 9:07 sati
Tri sestre stogodišnjakinje iz Kansasa hvale se svojom stogodišnjom dobi dok je “beba” (najmlađa) među njima prošlog mjeseca navršila 100 godina.
Franciska Kompus bliži se svojim starijim sestrama – Juliji Koprivi, 104, i Lucy Pochop, 102 – ali, naravno, nikada ih neće sustići.
Prva je Kopriva, rođena 5. studenog 1917., druga je Pochopom, rođena 11. lipnja 1919. Mala sestra Kompus napunila je 100. 11. studenoga. Desetljećima su sebe zvali Tri mušketira, Pochopova kćer Valyne Pochop je rekao za USA Today. Kopriva kao najstarija ipak ostaje gazdarica.
“One su uvijek bile uključeni u životu jedna uz drugog”, rekla je Valyne Pochop. “To je vrlo nevjerojatno.”
Sada su udovice, s djecom, unucima, pa čak i nekim praunucima, one tri žive u istim stanovima i u istoj umirovljeničkoj zajednici.
Nedavno su se preko KSNW-TV-a prisjetile svojih djetinjskih godina iđući skoro dvije milje do škole i iz nje kući, hodajući po njivama i berući usjeve s ocem na obiteljskoj farmi, u vrijeme prije traktora – i, dok nije došla struja u sela godine 1936., mi nismo imali struje.
“Uvijek smo imali domaći kruh, samo obični krumpir, mast i meso”, rekla je Kopriva za KSNW. “S tim štednjacima to je bilo teško ispeći, temperaturu je bilo teško održavati. Čak i ako nije ispalo dobro, ipak smo ga jeli.”
Nešto od tog mesa imali smo i svinja koje su sami klali.
Nakon što su proživjeli Veliku depresiju i prašin, između ostalih razdoblja, imali su nekoliko sitnica mudrosti za prenijeti – uglavnom usredotočeni na dobru hranu, puno hodanja i održavanje vjere.
“Dobro smo jeli, zar ne?” Kopriva je rekla KSNW-u, savjetujući ljudima da zahvale svojim roditeljima, bakama i djedovima, držati svoju vjeru čvrstom, “molite se i nastojati kloniti se nestašluka”.
Njihovi djed i baka su emigrirali iz Čehoslovačke i otišli na farmu u kotaru Rawlins, na pola puta između Denvera i Saline u Kansasu. One nisu imale braću, na njima je ovisio rad na farmi. Danas sin Lucy Pochop, Victor Holub, još uvijek obrađuje obiteljsko imanje, koje je osnovano 1917., prema USA Today.
Obitelj je isprva kod kuće govorila samo češki, sve dok “uporno malo dijete” Kopriva, dok je išao u prvi razred, proveo školsku godinu podučavajući sebe i svoju rodbinu kako se govori engleski, rekla je Rosalie Ross, urednica novina Rawlins County Square Deal u Atwood, rekao je za USA Today.
Kompus je proslavila svoju prekretnicu (stogodišnjicu) u velikom stilu na zabavi u katoličkoj crkvi Sacred Heart, (Presvetog Srca Isusova) koju su sve troje pohađali dok su odrastali, a zatim su kršteni, krizmani i čak vjenčani. Oko 50 ljudi pridružilo joj se u gradu Beardsleyu na sjeverozapadu Kansasa.
“Svidjelo mi se”, rekao je (Franciska) Kompus za USA Today. “Bila je to dobra zabava.”
Slijedila je svoj najbolji savjet, kao što je rekla za USA Today – da bude društvena, mnogo hodati i “nastaviti što dalje”.
Theresa Braine
New York Daily News
KONTAKT
Theresa Braine piše zanimljive vijesti za New York Daily News National Desk (Ured) od studenog 2018., s naglaskom na izvještavanje o okolišu i autohtona pitanja. Radila je kao samostalni strani dopisnik sa sjedištem u Mexico Cityju i bila je urednica i voditeljica za razne nacionalne časopise.
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