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Tordenskjold’s centenarians
Published 06:00 a.m., January 24, 2009
Photo by Zak Holtan
Jeanette Nelson, 100, (front) and Pearl Jensen, 102, grew up going to church together at Tordenskjold Free Lutheran outside of Underwood. Now the two spend time with one another at the Broen Home in Fergus Falls.
Pearl Jensen and Jeanette Nelson have known one another longer than most will live in an entire lifetime.
Jensen, 102, and Nelson, 100, met each other when they were young girls attending church at Tordenskjold Free Lutheran on the outskirts of Underwood. Now, after lives mostly spent in the Underwood and the Dalton areas, the two are now good friends at the Broen Home in Fergus Falls.
“I feel like I’ve known her all my life,” Nelson said.
And while one may assume the church holds some sort of fountain of youth, the two ladies say that’s not the case.
In fact, they say there’s really no secret to their longevity. Although they both admit to previously applying quite a bit of Oil of Olay to keep their skin silky smooth.
Nelson, who turned 100-years-old in December, still has the ability to crack a few jokes, and enjoys laughing with friends and family.
“I like to have fun,” Nelson said.
Jensen, who turned 102 in December, said her diet — which excluded coffee and chocolate — may have helped her out in the long run.
But now, after years of depriving herself of those two vices, she’s started to dig into the chocolate and coffee offered to her.
Nelson, on the other hand, was raised on coffee.
“I drank coffee by the time I was old enough to drink anything,” she said.
Jensen spent the majority of her years teaching in country schools, and spent the last 15 years of her career teaching in Carlton, Minn., just outside of Duluth. Nelson spent most of her life with her husband in Underwood, but also spent a few years as a full-time baby-sitter while living in White Bear Lake near the Twin Cities.
Both say they’re content with their lives at the Broen Home in Fergus Falls - mostly because they’re always warm and close to family.
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