By Anne W. Semmes
It is a great pleasure to hear from one’s readers as I did recently from Ruth Wilson in Cos Cob who responded to my Sentinel story on a talk by Ernest Thompson Seton’s granddaughter Julie Seton at Greenwich Library. Wilson wrote of having lived for 99 years on Meadow Drive near Seton’s Wyndygoul estate in Cos Cob. She wrote of knowing those “Cos Cob boys who were vandalizing his property,” who Seton famously transformed into the Seton Indians. “I guess,” she writes, “Mr. Seton believed in the old saying, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them.’”
Wilson was a Girl Scout when Seton moved to Lake Avenue. But when she came in contact with him with his “shaggy grey hair,” she was “scared to death of him,” especially when he wanted to teach the Girl Scouts his Indian dances. But she outgrew that fear as a Cos Cob teacher meeting up with him at a PTA meeting.
She also met up with daughter Anya Seton “many times,” she writes, describing her as “a warm, intelligent woman.” Inviting Anya to a teacher’s group they heard how Anya had researched her book, “The Winthrop Woman” first in England “until its end in what is now Tod’s Point.” She adds, “It should be interesting to any Greenwich resident.”
So, in search of a centenarian to interview I thought of Wilson. Perhaps she was 100!
AS: So, how old are you?
RW: 104. My birthday was March 12.
AS: Did you celebrate your birthday?
RW: I did, but not like the 100th birthday. We were in the Cos Cob Firehouse on my 100th.
We had over 200 people.
AS: What did you do for your 104th birthday?
RW: I just had the family here. My son and my daughter in law, and my daughter who lives in Illinois. She usually comes for my birthday.
AS: Do you have grandchildren? Great grandchildren?
RW: I have three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. One of my great granddaughters just graduated from Boston College. She’s just moving into an apartment in New York. She always wanted to live in New York.
AS: Who else in your family has lived to 100?
RW: Nobody. The longest anybody in my family has lived was my brother – he lived until 90. My sister to 85.
AS: What do you attribute your longevity to?
RW: I’m blessed. Also, I have taken vitamins. My son said one time, “Why do you take all those pills,” and I said, “They’re working, aren’t they?” I worked until I was 80. On River Road, there was a catalog company and I worked in the art department there. I met so many wonderful people – they were younger than I. Now, most of my friends from childhood are gone, so, it’s nice to have young friends.
AS: How many hip, knee or shoulder replacements have you had?
RW: I had two knee replacements. I don’t think I’d be doing what I do now without them.
AS: What sports did you play in your life?
RW: Wherever I went, I organized a volleyball game. I loved volleyball. And I liked to play softball. When I was a teacher, we teachers always played basketball against the high school freshman basketball team, and we never lost.
AS: What are you most proud of in your life?
RW: My kids. I don’t think I had so much to do with it, but they turned out okay.
AS: What decade in your life meant the most to you?
RW: In my thirties. I had children and I had a job teaching at the Cos Cob School. I started out in kindergarten. After 12 years I got promoted to go on to first grade. I taught there 28 years.
AS: So, your husband died when?
RW: He died very early of a heart attack. I was just 51. We were marred 30 years.
AS: Did you date?
RW: I did. But I didn’t want to marry again. I traveled a lot. I’ve been to every continent in the world, including Antarctica. I went to Antarctica when I was 85. I remember the penguins.
AS: Of all the continents, which continent did you like the best?
RW: The best place was Greece. I like ancient history and there was an island called Santorini.
When I went there, I had to go up to the top on a donkey. Santorini is not like it was. It was sort of undiscovered. I went back once, and it started to be commercialized. I was lucky I traveled when I did. People weren’t traveling then.
AS: What rules do you live by?
RW: To be kind and to do things for other people.
AS: What foods do you love?
RW: Ice cream. That’s my middle name.
AS: If you could tell the President of the United States one thing today, what would it be?
RW: Resign.
AS: What’s your counsel for the younger generation?
RW: First of all, be kind. Second of all, make something of yourself by getting a good education. Do what you love.
AS: What music do you love?
RW: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Its Ode to Joy is so joyful. I used to go to the Greenwich Symphony, the Stamford Symphony, and sometimes to the New York Philharmonic.
AS: What is on your bedside reading table?
RW: The Bible.
AS: Do you believe in life after death?
RW: Yes, I do.
AS: If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for?
RW: I would wish that the world would go back to the way it used to be, where people weren’t at each other’s throats all the time and so much dissension. I didn’t grow up in that.
AS: What are you looking forward to?
RW: Whatever comes up. This week, I’m having two house guests, my daughter and another woman that I’ve grown up with in the church. It’s contact with people.
AS: You go to church and what church?
RW: I Zoom Diamond Hill United Methodist Church. I’ve been there 75 years. But I was brought up in Christ Church, and married there, but then the war came. I had two children whom I wanted to have a religious education. I could walk there, but they couldn’t. But belonged to Christ Church for over 40 years. I always go back on Good Friday. I love the Good Friday service. When I was five years old, my aunt used to take me there and we’d sit for the three hour service. I loved that. I loved Christ Church.
