Rachel Justice may have just turned 104, but she is proud to be the youngest 104-year-old at her assisted living center.
Justice, who celebrated her birthday on July 4, has lived at the Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center of Cape Coral on Del Prado Blvd. for the last eight years. Her daughter Ginny Holland said she isn’t the only one who is 104 at the center.
“There are three that are 104 in the facility,” said Holland. “She is youngest and is proud of that.”
Every Fourth of July, all of Justice’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren celebrate her birthday in a small conference room.. They have cake, open presents and reminisce about Justice’s life.
Holland pointed out that three generations of women in their family were all together to celebrate her birthday party – Rachel Justice, her daughter Ginny Holland, and her granddaughter Karen Spencer who is 52.
They estimate that five generations of children can be traced back to Rachel Justice. Posted in the room during her party was a photograph of Rachel, and her husband Mercer, when they were in their 20s, although she had a hard time seeing it when asked when it was taken and by whom.
“My eyes aren’t the same,” she said.
In her younger days she worked as physical education teacher who played a lot of golf and tennis, and she did all of her sewing by hand.
Holland said her mother doesn’t say anything negative about anybody and always has a positive attitude.
“She doesn’t remember anything negative, she is a very positive person,” said Holland. “She never sees the bad in anybody, it’s amazing.”
One of the family’s fondest memories of Justice was the story of her and her parents moving by horse and carriage from the Poconos in the mountains of Pennsylvania to Glenside near Philadelphia. Justice said the entire trip took only one night and they stayed at a countryside inn somewhere between the Poconos and Glenside.
“We lived in the mountains of Pennsylvania,” said Justice. “We had a horse you could ride.”
When asked about the name of her horse, she said she couldn’t recall because she has learned so many names in her 104 years.
“How many names have I learned?” she said, smiling.
Much happened the year Justice was born. In 1906, a “great” earthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco, Jack London’s White Fang was published and President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating peace during the Russo-Japanese War.