CLEARLAKE — One-hundred years.
It may seem simple to utter the words, until the flame of 100 candles flickers in the middle of a dimly lit room. For most, 100 years is the unattainable, a fantasy number, a length of time in which, arguably, humankind has seen its biggest evolution.
Anne Garvin Celebrated her 100th birthday Saturday in Clearlake, with the company of a family tree that grew from her roots. About 40 people, mostly family, made the trip from all over the state to celebrate her century of life.
Garvin enjoyed individual time with most of the people present while the rest celebrated her in other areas of her apartment, her daughter Carmen Patterson said.
“She just loved every moment of it,” Patterson said.
It is hard to fully grasp the lapse of time Garvin lived, Patterson said. During her lifetime, man went to the moon. The world endured the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 and contrasted by V-E Day and the death of Osama bin Laden. The world saw the birth of television and a communications” revolution.
But Garvin, who was born in Big Bend Idaho, Aug. 18 1913, lived the first years of her life isolated from the world in a ranching community, Patterson said. During the time when mass communication was in its infancy, Garvin”s family did not own a radio, and many important events such as women suffrage went virtually unnoticed to her.
Still, as she grew up, Garvin was a woman who was not easily stopped.
“She would have just barreled on top of anybody who got in her way,” Patterson said.
The adventurous woman, as Patterson described her, was a rancher pioneer with her parents during her childhood, and an avid traveler during her later years.
“She always kept a packed bag in case she could convince someone to take a trip with her,” Patterson said.
Patterson was convinced to travel with her mother a couple of times. Her mother”s adventurous spirit led the two to explore Mexico and South America.
Patterson remembered a time when, while navigating the Amazon River, a confidence filled Garvin stood at the edge of the river. Following men much younger than her, a roughly 80-year-old Garvin set herself up to swing from a vine into the river. When Patterson tried to stop her, Garvin simply said, “get off me,” and proceeded to plant her feet and ready herself for the leap.
Patterson was able to stop Garvin, but it was clear the spirit of adventure was more than alive even at 80 years old, Patterson said.
Garvin moved to California in the 1940s and lived in the Bay Area and southern California before she moved to Lake County. She moved to Lakeport and later to Clearlake.
She mothered two children and saw the branches of her family tree expand into five grand children, seven great grand children and five great, great grand children.
One hundred years after her birth, Garvin lives alone in her apartment, cooks her own meals and keeps her place clean, Patterson said. What for many may be a fantasy number, carries on as ordinary life for Garvin.
Isaac Brambila is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. Reach him at 263-5636 ext. 37 or at ibrambila@record-bee.com.
