Hasty celebrates 100th birthday

Elizabeth Hasty shares words of wisdom learned from her long life.  

She celebrated her 100th birthday at Life Care Center of Hilliard Oct. 10 and enjoyed a second party three days later. 

“I try to eat right. I don’t drink alcohol ¬– never have,” Hasty said. “I do take a little jigger (of cough medicine) for a cold. I never drank wine or liquor or smoked as a habit.” 

Hasty said that she also avoided eating junk food and drinking soft drinks. 

She does have a few aches and pain from arthritis in her right knee. 

Since falling in the bathtub earlier this year, she gets around in a wheelchair. She had utilized a walker before that and was physically active well into her 90s, according to family members. Son Joe Hasty and daughter-in-law Bernese regularly visit Hasty and attend to her needs. 

“She’s just been tough,” Joe recalled. “She’s had a rough life and made it a long time.” 

His mother replied, “You can’t plan on too much. You can’t get about like you would like to. This a very good place to be.” 

Joe said that Life Care Center of Hilliard provides his mother with opportunities to socialize. She lived with her son for five years before entering the facility to undergo physical therapy in January. She had previously lived independently. 

“I think it’s made an improvement on her, just interacting with people and being with people her age,” Joe said. 

Hasty was born Oct. 10, 1918 in Columbia County to Louis Benton Douberly and Alice Amanda Edwards. Her mother died from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. 

“I was 6 weeks old and I guess she didn’t recover from the Spanish Flu,” Hasty said. 

Approximately 500 million people or “one-third of the world’s population became infected with the virus, and the number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

Relatives took the infant in and cared for her. Hasty’s father married three times and fathered 11 children. Half-brother Paul is the only sibling left. 

“It was a mixed-up situation, “ Hasty said. “When I was 11, my dad got married again. He was a farmer and we lived in the country. And I left in 1938 to live with my sister (Iris).”

Living with her father shaped her lifelong perspective on handling finances.

“When I stayed with my dad during the early 1930s, that’s when the Depression was on and nobody had any money,” Hasty recalled. “And that’s what woke me up about being prepared and having money for emergencies. We had only what we grew. Only you had to have some money to buy grits and coffee. We had our own corn that we ground to make our own grits.” 

As a young woman, she began working for Swisher in Jacksonville, the home of King Edward cigars.

“A very good place to work for,” Hasty said, adding that she worked there for more than three decades. 

She married Ezell Joe Hasty on March 23, 1941. The couple raised sons Joe and Tommy on Jacksonville’s North Side, living mostly in Oceanway. Her husband died Dec. 24, 1977. 

Her biggest highlight in life was “having my two children,” Hasty said. “And they were healthy and that was a blessing. We were able to give them an education and they were willing to finish their education. So many children drop out of school. They joined the Air Force and the youngest one, when he was in the service, he would explore the world. He would go to different countries.”

On one of Tommy’s trips, Hasty visited Haiti for about a month. She had done little traveling prior to making the trip. 

The centenarian handed out additional advice on living well.

“To be economical, to make ends meet, you have to live within your means, taking care of important business like a will or burial expenses,” Hasty said. “Be prepared. Save for that rainy day.”