This browser does not support the Video element.
105-year-old shares secret to life
Kelly Ring reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - A Tampa woman who has spent more than a century in Florida recently shared words of wisdom while celebrating her 105th birthday at the Unisen Senior Living facility.
"I have no feeling of age," said Dixonia Hale. "My age is just me. I guess it's all wonderful, wonderful feeling in a wonderful place to be."
Hale was born and raised in Cedar Key.
"We had the White House Hotel. I was born in, the White House. I didn't say which one," Hale said with a smile. "I lived there until I was 15 years old and when the depression came in the 30s and we closed the hotel."
Her father worked for the railroad in Cedar Key, but had to relocate to Tampa when the depression hit in 1931.
"He was an express messenger on the railroad. We traveled with him a lot, which was a big mistake because we didn't finish school in one place," Hale explained.
She graduated from high school in Gainesville.
"My first job was at McCoury's Five and 10-cent store," Hale recalled. "And then I married in ‘42 and we went to Key West and I worked for the telephone company in Key West on the big board.
READ Volunteer stories: The backbone of Metropolitan Ministries
Somewhere someone might know what the B board is. It's this where you put the wires together. And then I work at Southern Bell in Orlando for the telephone company."
Hale got married but later divorced and eventually moved back to Tampa to take a job at the Hillsborough County Court House as a clerk in 1953. She remarried in 1970 and says the secret to life is a good cocktail.
"I have a martini at four o'clock every afternoon," she explained. "I don't know that that's my medication. I take no medication."
What words of wisdom for a life well-lived.
"I have had a very great life. I really have spent a very, very happy life. Of course, there's always sadness in every life, but I have enjoyed life," Hale said.
A long and full life that we all should cherish.
Hale has lived at Unisen Senior Living for the past 16 years and loves all the friends that she has made.