What you have heard is true. It's not gossip. It's not just a local legend creeping like cloud shadows across the Virgina hills all the way to South Carolina. I am one-hundred-eight years old. I know. I know. What's my secret? I tell you I've lived hard. When I was young I drank and danced and barely slept. I've smoked for more than eighty years. Pall Malls. Filterless. The brand I started with. I tell you it's something to count on. I've outlived my husband and two of my children. I've gone through a whole kennel of hounds like Rocky, here. The funny thing is I went gray, early. I had strands of silver in high school. Used to think I'd die young, so I lived fast. I dyed my hair, at first, then I gave up on it. I don't know if it was the burning or the bother or if I was just plain mad to have to do it. It felt like a lie.
I used to make my own clothes, you know. Still do when my fingers aren't seized up. This? No, this is something my daughter picked out. I like the blue, but the collar is a bit old-fashioned, don't you think? You're sweating. Here, I'll turn up the fan. My husband? He died young. Heart attack took him. Nope. I never remarried. One life. One husband. Just like I take my coffee: black with a single lump of sugar. Nothing extra. It's funny how people always want to put cream in your coffee. Can I get you some more?
I used to make my own clothes, you know. Still do when my fingers aren't seized up. This? No, this is something my daughter picked out. I like the blue, but the collar is a bit old-fashioned, don't you think? You're sweating. Here, I'll turn up the fan. My husband? He died young. Heart attack took him. Nope. I never remarried. One life. One husband. Just like I take my coffee: black with a single lump of sugar. Nothing extra. It's funny how people always want to put cream in your coffee. Can I get you some more?
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