York Town News
Margaret Wilson, at 103 years young, may just be York's oldest resident
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Margaret "Peg" Wilson has seen her share of tragedies and triumphs in her 103 years - and she still has a smile and a twinkle in her eye for everyone she meets. Peg is pictured here, at home, with her granddaughter Donna Chase and Donna's granddaughter, Olivia, who will turn three on March 4.
Photo by Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Margaret Wilson's eyes have seen more than a century of sunrises and sunsets, and they still shine when she speaks of her life.
"I was born in Allston, Massachusetts, on January 29, 1904," Margaret - or "Peg" as she likes to be called - said as she began her story.
Peg now lives with her granddaughter, Donna Chase, here in York, moving to town from Alfred after the unexpected death of her daughter and Donna's mother, Joan Marie, back in 2004. Peg is a woman of faith, who named her only son William Gerald, "after Father Fitzgerald," she explained, her pretty eyes bright as she shared memories spanning back to a time before two world wars and the Great Depression - and long before terms like "the internet" meant anything to anyone.
Her story is filled with happiness and sorrow - a true life's story. Peg remembers that her father died when she was only four years old, and that she and her mother moved in with her grandmother. She went to Oak Square School, and then Brighton High School, before becoming a telephone operator at the age of 16.
From there, she went to work at Jordan Marsh.
"It's Macy's now," she said, acknowledging that time has changed many things. "Pays are much higher now. I was getting $18 a week years ago, but I worked up to $60 a week."
In addition to the changes in wages, Peg said medical care has come a long way from the early decades of the 20th century. She is solemn as she remembers her own siblings, several of whom died as infants or in early childhood.
Peg remembers taking the streetcar to Boston City Hospital to have her tonsils out as a young girl, and lying on the grass outside after the operation because she was too sick to move until her aunt told her, "They'll take you back in if you don't get up."
She smiled at the memory.
"Doctors are better now," she said, "but they don't come to your home anymore."
Peg married, and raised her family in Brighton, losing her husband when he was just 33 years old - the same age her father had been when he passed away.
"And she never remarried," Donna said, smiling gently at her grandmother as they sat together in the kitchen of her York home, which is filled with memories passed down from her grandmother and mother as well as photographs of her own children and grandchildren.
Before her own mother's death of a brain aneurism three years ago at the age of 72, Donna said Peg was able to have her photograph taken with five generations of her family. To date, she has nine grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
Those numbers make Peg smile, as does reminiscing about those she loves, but she grieves deeply for the daughter she lost.
Donna said she is blessed to have her grandmother, and to have had such a close bond with her own mother - bonds that continue through the generations. In fact, Peg was able to join Donna, her husband and their family at the Veterans of Foreign Wars just a little over one year ago, in January of 2006, to welcome home the Chases' son from Iraq.
"She always says that if you stop using it, you lose it," Donna said, not only describing her grandmother's excellent memory and sharp wit, but also her commitment to getting up and moving around even when it is difficult. The two have a tradition of going out shopping together on most Fridays.
What is Peg's secret to living to 103?
She laughs aloud when she admits that it's eating lots of sweet treats.
When asked about Margaret Wilson and whether she is, in fact, York's oldest living resident, Town Clerk Mary-Anne Szeniawski said she does not have records documenting that information at this time, but added, "Based on my personal knowledge, I believe she is our oldest resident."
And what message does Peg want to share with the generations that have been born after her?
"Think of other people," she said. "Try to help them."
