Life lesson for longtime resident, 101, is kindness
‘Just treat everybody with respect and be nice to people’
After celebrating her 101st birthday this weekend, Helen Brandes of Royal Oak shared a simple bit of advice on the best way to get through life.
“Just treat everybody with respect and be nice to people,” she said. “I never thought I’d be 101. It’s just overwhelming. But people were so nice to me, I was always nice to them and I would try to help them if they needed help.”
Until a few years ago, Brandes helped out a housebound neighbor after he lost his wife.
“I used to go over to his house,” she said. “You try to help people when you can … somebody is always worse off than you.”
Brandes did many things for the neighbor to make his life easier, said her daughter, Dorothy Brandes, 65.
Dorothy moved in with her mother a year ago to watch over her now that she’s passed the century mark.
Helen Brandes has no interest in watching TV and is a dedicated reader of the Royal Oak Tribune, where she worked for 30 years typing and billing for ads. After retiring from the Tribune, she worked at J.C. Penny at Oakland Mall for another decade, leaving that last job when she was in her early 80s.
“She was still driving up until she was 90,” said her daughter, who created a chronological picture board of her mother’s travels and life for her socially distanced
outdoor birthday party Saturday. “She’s a social person … and she’s doing OK after a stint at Beaumont Hospital a couple of weeks ago.”
Even in the hospital, Brandes made friends and enjoyed herself.
“She didn’t want to come home,” Dorothy said with a laugh.
Born on a farm in Southfield in 1919 four days before the end of World War I, Brandes grew up in Clawson and lived there with her husband, Maynard, before they moved to Royal Oak in 1955.
“We have no idea where her longevity comes from,” Dorothy said. “Her mother died in her late 70s from Par
kinson’s (disease). It’s not like she watched everything. My parents smoked for years and she drank socially.”
Brandes had breast cancer in her 80s and hip replacement surgery about eight years ago, but still gets around with the aid of a walker. Perhaps part of the answer to her long life is the way she sees it and the people she’s shared it with.
“I had a wonderful life with a wonderful husband and a super wonderful daughter,” Brandes said. “I’ve had a good life surrounded by good people. As long as I have my mind and I can walk with my walker I’m doing OK.”