106 Year Old Woman Shares Her Secrets to Life

Gertrude Hawkins celebrated her 106th birthday recently and provided some advice on how to live a long life.

Hawkins, who currently resides in Los Angeles, was born on March 28, 1917 to farmers from Mississippi and Arkansas. She is known as “Aunt Trim” to her loved ones in the Los Angeles area and doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind.

“I don’t let nothing bother me because worry gets you nothing but gray hair, and I don’t want that,” Hawkins said.

Her friend, Lou Davis, has known her for over 80 years and says she is very kind and charismatic.

“She is a giving person. Kind. And we like her charisma. We love her charisma. The way she caries herself,” said Davis.

Her family calls her a trailblazer, citing her as the pioneer who brought the family out West.

“We all followed my Aunt Trim to the West Coast,” said Ryan Hope, Hawkins’ great nephew. “If it weren’t for her being one of the pioneers to come to the West Coast early on in life, we wouldn’t be here.”

Hawkins recalls her childhood fondly, growing up as a farmer in the South.

“You work from sunup to sun down. So you didn’t have much thinking to do,” Hawkins said. “I thought it was the worst life in the world, but it was the best life.”

“You didn’t have to lock your door,” Hawkins added. “You could go out and stay a year and pull the door behind you, and come back, and nobody’s been in your house.”

Hawkins also had some valuable life advice.

“I try to treat everybody right, that way I have no worries, no regrets about my life,” Hawkins said. “I got one answer for everybody, it is to live and don’t die.”

106 Year Old Woman Shares Her Secrets to Life  was originally published on wibc.com