When Carol Kent took her mother, Margaret O’Toole, shopping for a new recliner recently, she noticed the lift chairs and urged her mom to try one. Margaret sat in the fancy chair and pushed the button that raised her from a seated to a standing position in one smooth move. Perfect, thought Carol. “Hmmm,” said Margaret, “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. Maybe in a couple years.”
Margaret just turned 102. Margaret, who currently lives at Parkside Court in Columbus was born in 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic. She survived a sickly childhood riddled with several bouts of pneumonia, German measles, and whooping cough. She lived through the Depression, wartime, the premature death of many loved ones, and a broken neck. Now she is spending her senior years quarantined during another pandemic. How does she account for such perseverance? “Deep in my core,” says Margaret, “I am a happy, optimistic person. I’m open to love and life. It’s who I am.”
Margaret’s life reads like an epic novel. Born in Eau Claire Wisconsin, she was raised in Chicago. An excellent student, she was active in Girl Scouts and swimming. After graduating from high school at 16, she went on to junior college. But when her father suddenly died at only 51, she had to quit school and go to work at the original downtown Marshall Fields in Chicago.
She met the love of her life, Bill Schulze, at a neighborhood dance. They married in 1939 and had a son Billy. While seven months pregnant with Carol, her second child, her young husband was rushed to the hospital for an appendectomy. In those days, the medical community unwittingly prescribed the erroneous advice of lying in bed for nine days after surgery. Bill developed a blood clot and died suddenly while on this bed rest.
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Margaret was devastated. But she persevered. She had $81 a month in death benefits to raise her children. Rent took up $20 of the sum. Two years later, she met Ray O’Toole, while he was on leave from the military. They married, moved to Connecticut, and had a son, Gary. Margaret and Ray would be married for 47 years, but for 19 of those years, Ray would be an invalid—by choice. After two heart attacks, he became so fearful of life, that he went to bed and stayed there. This was a difficult existence for the spirited Margaret who now had to take care of him. She never considered leaving him though. She filled her free time with swimming, tennis, and friends. One day, she brought him his orange juice at 7:30 a.m. and found him dead. It was a bittersweet end to a long marriage.
Margaret still did not give up on love. Soon she met Harvey, a tall handsome violinist retired from the Hartford Symphony. Their life was filled with a whirlwind of activities, including trips into the New York City for Broadway shows. They decided to move to Columbus to be near Margaret’s daughter, Carol. Within five years of the move, Harvey died of cancer. Another love lost. Tragedy struck again, when Margaret’s grandson Danny, Gary’s son, died in a motorcycle accident just as he was graduating from college. With her typical resilience, Margaret grieved and kept going. She resumed swimming, spending several days a week at. Foundation for Youth, often swimming a mile. In fact, there is now a board at the pool there called “Margaret’s Mile Club” where other swimmers can record their miles. She swam regularly until she was 95.
She also indulged her affinity and talent for water colors and became quite adept. It amazed her when people wanted to buy her paintings. Attending the Columbus Symphony, joining Kiwanis, and mentoring through the Foster Grandparents program also filled her busy days. One day at the pool, Margaret swam up to a fellow named Merle who looked sad and said, “You look like you could use a friend.” They clicked. Both retired and in good health, they spent many years traveling the world — from New York to Hawaii to Europe and everywhere in between. He was seven years younger than Margaret, and she remembers joking, “At least he won’t die on me.” But Merle began complaining of shoulder pain and soon couldn’t get out of bed. It was a shock when he was diagnosed with cancer. He was dead within a few weeks. By this time, Margaret was 86.
She moved into Parkside Court and continued with her busy life. She’s the first to volunteer for any committee. She reads several books a month, does the Republic’s daily crossword, and is an unbeatable opponent in Scrabble. Still open to possibility at 95, Margaret struck up a friendship with a man from Parkside Court. He was taking Margaret out to lunch when his car was broadsided on Rocky Ford Road. He was unharmed, but Margaret broke her neck. The doctor told Carol that her mother was too old for her bones to regenerate. She would be in a neck brace for life. Not Margaret. With her usual determination, she shed the brace at eight weeks and has not had any problems since. Doctors are amazed at Margaret’s good health. Though she now has a pacemaker, she has never had any surgery and has all her own teeth. She has escaped or survived diseases and accidents that killed many of her contemporaries.
It’s probably no surprise that Margaret still has a youthful glow about her. Her beauty secret? “I’ve never used anything but soap and water and baby oil on my face,” said Margaret. “A nice glass of pink wine keeps me glowing too!”
Margaret looks back in wonder at how much has changed since she was a girl. She notes that the young women of today are in no hurry to get married and have children. They know what they want and have the opportunities to do it! “In my time, a woman would be labeled an ‘old maid’ if she wasn’t married by age 30,” said Margaret.
Margaret is also astounded at how little she needed to be happy when she was young compared to today’s children. Once, during the Depression, living in Chicago, her mother gave her a quarter. It seemed a fortune to her. She remembers that day still — she rented a bike with the money (she was too poor to own one) and rode 19 blocks to swim in Lake Michigan.
Margaret has been coping with life in quarantine by sticking to a routine. Up at 7:30 a.m. every day, making her bed, reading the paper, and exercising on a stationary bike. She has a scooter for mobility, but likes to stroll around with her walker so she doesn’t lose her leg muscles. She also keeps in touch with her beloved family—three children, nine grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and one great -great! They all adore her.
She is not happy about having to spend this precious twilight time in her life in quarantine. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night crying about it,” she said. “I still shed tears for Bill too, after all these years. I hope I am reunited with him in Heaven.” Margaret might want to put that lift chair on layaway. The way she’s going, she just may be around for many more years.
