‘I feel like 40 or 50 right now’: Woman celebrates 100th birthday
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM/Gray News) - Family and friends celebrated a woman’s 100th birthday on Saturday.
The Heritage Hall room at the National Infantry Museum was full of laughter, smiles and some tears of joy as people celebrated Susie Dotson.
“I feel like 40 or 50 right now,” she said.
Dotson is 100 years old, an age many don’t get the chance to see.
“I don’t have no pains. I just feel, I just feel wonderful. I feel that God has blessed me with many, many blessings,” she said.
Dotson was born on July 4, 1924, in Cusseta, Georgia. She moved to Columbus, Georgia, in 1975.
She is the sole survivor of her 20 siblings.
“I wondered a lot of times, ‘Why, why me? Why me? Why, why me?’ I wondered that so. I guess it might have come from being good to everybody and being kind and sweet,” Dotson said.
Her family and friends surrounded her Saturday to say happy birthday and show their appreciation for all she does.
Dotson’s grandson, whom she has raised since he was three months old, helped organize the celebration.
“She’s very colorful, very funny. You know, she has no filter saying what she wants to say but she has a great heart. She’ll give you the shirt off her back. She’s been a great mom to me, and she actually made me who I am today,” Charles Thornton said.
Thornton said one of the things his grandmother instilled in him was hard work.
Dotson shared some of her life story WTVM.
“I lost my sight a few months ago. Lost all my sights,” she said.
She said before she lost her eyesight completely, she could only see out of one eye.
Even with losing her eyesight, she said that did not stop her, and although her sight is fully gone, she still has her sense of humor and lots of love to pour into those around her.
She hugged and talked to many at her party with a smile on her face.
“I love people, and I love to be around them. I love to laugh with them. I can’t see nobody, but you can say things to make me feel good or make me tickled, make me laugh. I laugh a lot,” Dotson said.
She had some words of wisdom on one way to live a long life.
“I think we all should get together and love each other. I think we should not hate each other,” she said. I think we should just go on and smile and keep in touch with each other,” Dotson said.
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