Moeller attended McComb’s birthday party Wednesday afternoon in the Millikin Family Lobby and gave her and Murphy two blue bottles of Hamilton water. When told Auld’s birthday is next month, Moeller, who was out of water, said he’d delivered two more bottles this week.
“Hard to believe,” Moeller said after leaving the party. “Those ladies certainly don’t look their age.”
McComb, born on July 7, 1918 in Rawson, Ohio, grew up in Ada.
She accredits her long life to family genes — her mother lived to be 100 and her father was 92 — and never drinking alcohol or smoking.
“He told me if he ever caught me with a cigarette what he would do to me,” she said of her father.
One of her most vivid memories came when her father worked for the telephone company in Lima, and its symbol was a diamond. She always followed him around, and one day as he was changing a sign, he told her to move over. But instead, she looked up and hit her head, leaving a scar.
That’s one of her few blemishes. She uses a walker, still gets dressed and showers without assistance and looks 20 years younger than her birth certificate states.
“She’s very elegant,” Smith said when asked to describe McComb. “A very Godly lady.”
McComb and her husband, Allen Richard, had three sons, Mike, Tom, and Allen.
Allen, 75, the only son living, resides in Fairfield and visits his mother every day.
“Everything that she has seen” is how he described his mother’s life. “She has done a lot.”
After having her photo taken while standing behind her birthday cake that was decorated with pink and orange icing, McComb sat on a couch as two musicians sang.
She was asked about celebrating her 103rd birthday with her family and friends.
“Probably be my last one,” she said. “I can’t live forever.”
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