Irma turns 106, enjoys life each day

There are no secrets to longevity, only choices.

So says Irma Morrison, a Kent woman who has lived a wonderful life.

All 106 years of them.

“Don’t smoke, drink or chew,” the gentle lady said while clutching a cup of coffee at Aegis Inn, an assisted senior living and memory care facility on Kent’s East Hill. “I don’t know how I got this old. … I just know to work hard. I know that life is worth living.”

Irma, who officially turned 106 last Friday, joined family and friends in a celebration at the Aegis center last Saturday.

A third-generation Washingtonian, Irma was one of nine children born in Elberton, which is now a ghost town on the north fork of the Palouse River. The family lived there and later in Reardan.

Irma was married to Harold Morrison for 63 years. They raised two children, Twyla and Wayne. Harold did janitorial work when the family wasn’t tending to their farm in the Spokane area.

Irma helped raise 37 foster kids, mostly in the 1940s. She also worked as a nurse’s aid at a hospital in the 1950s and ’60s.

“They were always doing nice things for people all the time,” said Brad Smith, Irma’s only grandson and a middle school teacher in Seattle.

Irma has few surviving family members. She stays in touch with her 97-year-old sister Doris, who lives in Newport, calling “Doh-Doh” daily by phone.

“I’ve told her that I couldn’t live without her,” Irma said.

Irma has stayed strong in her later year, despite losing her deteriorating eyesight about a year ago.

She stays busy with others at Aegis, looking forward to having coffee, a cookie and a good laugh each day.

“I think I’ve done quite well with age,” she said. “I’ve had a good life. I would like to live my life all over again.”