Bixby Knolls Towers celebrated the birthdays of 11 residents with ages in the triple digits on Wednesday, Jan. 26.
“Be cautious. Be thoughtful. Be generous,” is the advice Bixby Knolls Towers resident Bette Barden has for the public after 102 years of life.
Although her husband of 78 years, 103-year-old Don, was unable to attend the celebration, he was also one of the 11 honorees.
With 78 years of marriage experience, Bette’s simple and sweet advice on making a relationship last is to “just be nice to your husband. Be nice, don’t be nasty—I try not to be.”
However, she was insistent that women be picky when choosing a partner.
“Girls should be careful,” Barden said. “Date only certain people.”
All 11 centenarians received a commemorative certificate from the City, presented to them by staff members from the office of Mayor Robert Garcia.
98% of residents have been vaccinated and have received their booster shots for COVID-19, according to Chris Ragon, president of communications for Retirement Housing Foundation (which runs Bixby Knolls Towers).
“They all embrace the vaccine,” Ragon said. “But you hear of people who are getting sick with the vaccine so they’re still concerned.”
During the height of the pandemic, residents at Bixby Knolls Towers were tested for COVID-19 daily.
According to Ragon, the residents of Bixby Knolls Towers “have chafed under the mandates.”
It was only in the last two or three months that residents were allowed to start eating together in the dining hall again, before that all their meals were brought to their rooms to promote social distancing.
“Some of them are having a hard time with the masks,” Ragon said. “Some of them are having a hard time being with people again and we’re finding that with our seniors in most of our communities, that they’re apprehensive, I don’t want to say scared, but they’re apprehensive to be among people when you’ve got Delta and then you’ve got another variant with Omicron that’s supposed to be worse.”
During the event, both the vulnerability and strength of elders in the face of a global pandemic was highlighted.
“What I found out taking care of people your age was that you all had the most courage of anyone in our community […],” Doctor Payam Parvinchiha, who works with Bixby Knolls Towers residents, told the crowd. “It’s not just the physical strength, but it’s the emotional strength, the community strength you all sort of represent, that the world needs a lot more of.”
