Hide Article Text (OCR)
Survives JSurgery ■at 105NEW IBERIA, La. (DPI) ,-f Grandma Blanche! lost her gall bladder last year at age 105, but she kept her wit, her memory, her health and her belief that you might just live indefinitely if you don’t smoke, don’t drink and go to bed early.‘'Grandma” is what the other^ residents of the Consolata Nur-’sing Home call Alicia Reaux Blanchct of New Iberia, who will be 106 June B.She is among the oldest patients on record to survive serious surgery.Her gall bladder was-removed at Iberia Parish, Hospital Nov. 17, and she recovered so well that she was discharged one month later, with no medication prescribed.“I knew she would survive the surgery, and she did without any difficulty at all,” said Div Oscar Alvarez, Mrs. Blanchet’s personal physician. “She’s something else, really.”Mrs. Blanehet was born three years after the end of the Civil War on a sugar cane farm in rural Vermilion Parish. She speaks only French.She married early, raised seven children and worked on her farm.She was also a country storekeeper, still remembered for giving food away during the Depression.She lived on her farm until she was 93, then moved into Consolata.“She tells me she's worried about the old, sick people at the nursing home, and yet she’s the oldest one there, says her granddaughter, Mrs. Patrick Colomb of Lafayette,She’s very alert and knows what’s going on around her,” Mrs. Colomb said. “She has a remarkable memory, and she has no traces of senility.”This week Mrs. Blanehet celebrated National Hospital Week by offering some suggestions for avoiding hospitalization. They were:—Stay cheerful. When asked about how she feels, her standard reply is “Petit peux mieux.” (A little bit better), —Pray. She says prayer al| ways .makes everything tur ,v: out dlhVighi^Shei«tt«ndw-in Several times a week.—Keep interested in things, Mrs. Blanehet plays bingo every Wednesday night and gets visits from relatives and school children. She reportedly never goes out without her comb and compact, and can be observed powdering her nose several times daily, “She chooses the dress she wants to wear every day and fusses until she gets exactly the shawl she wants to match it,” one friend said.—“Don’t smoke, don't drink and go to bed early.” This is her avosed secret of longevity, and she goes to bed every night her avowed secret of longevity, and she goes to bed every night at 6 p.m., her nurses say,iJI
Newspaper Details
Ruston Daily Leader
Ruston, Louisiana, US
Tue, May 08, 1973
Page 42
Full Page
Clipped by
Jimmy L.
SE 27 Aug 2017
Other Publications Near Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston Broadcaster
Ruston Leader
Ruston Daily Leader
