Georges Mills
But even as she turns 108 years old today, she’s still working to impart the health benefits of physical movement on to others.
“You have to keep moving your body,” she said recently, sitting in her room at the Sunapee Cove assisted living facility. “It’s so easy to just sit.”
The Chicago native, who taught in Buffalo, N.Y., now regularly leads other residents of the building overlooking Lake Sunapee in a “sit and be fit” class, where gentle motions while sitting down help to keep them feeling good.
“It’s something different,” said Nilson, who laughs often.
She tells her peers they can do the exercises while watching TV, but repeatedly cautions against overdoing it or pushing through pain: “Listen to your body. It tells you what you can do and what you shouldn’t do. It’s the best advice I can give you.”
Nilson’s birthday today, when she plans to make her regular church visit and celebrate with angel food cake, is a chance to reflect on a life that has seen drastic changes in everyday living. She was born in 1908, long before electricity became commonplace in American homes, and now watches grandchildren and great grandchildren use computers and the internet. She’s also seen the advent of the radio, television and car; her first car, purchased as a teenager, cost $28, which she split 50-50 with a friend.
Other memories include having her long locks cut into a fashionable bob haircut to the dismay of her mother. She clearly recalls the end of World War I, when students were dismissed from school and people flooded the streets of Chicago. Now she laments the decline of children reading for fun, which was all the entertainment she had beyond Parcheesi and card games, when she was a kid.
“As soon as it got dark, we all went home,” said Nilson, whose German immigrant parents ran a bakery in Chicago. “What was there to do? Read. No music, no television, no computers. So our choice was to get a good book and read, and to this day I love to read.”
She recalled the ice delivery arriving by horse and buggy to fill their ice boxes — no refrigerators, of course — and the joy of children scraping off flecks of ice shavings for themselves.
“I think the kids nowadays miss a lot of fun,” she said. “I wonder how much they remember (from age) 8, 9 or 10.
“The good old days were the good old days.”
After high school, Nilson and her late husband, Swede Nilson, attended a specialized school for physical education affiliated with the University of Indiana in Indianapolis, and moved to Buffalo for work.
The couple retired in 1964 to a house built on another lake, Stone Lake, located in a town of the same name in Wisconsin. Nilson lived on her own there until age 106.
But after suffering a fall two years ago — which resulted in her first hospital visit since delivering her youngest son 74 years earlier — she moved into a Sunapee Cove apartment to be closer to her eldest son and daughter-in-law, Bob and Nancy Nilson, who live in New London.
Bob Nilson, 80, said his mother’s longevity can be attributed in large part to her “very positive attitude,” plus a little bit of luck. (Nilson, for her part, jokes that she thinks “the band of angels coming after me got lost up there some place.”)
Bob Nilson said Sunapee Cove has been a good fit because it’s allowed for more family visits while providing outlets for his mother’s active lifestyle, such as the “sit and be fit” class.
Nilson’s leadership in the class came around as somewhat of a fluke. The facility has a video version that can be played on a TV in a communal room. But when Enrichment Director Carol Meyers had some technical difficulties one morning getting the video to work, she asked Nilson if she could fill in.
Now, Nilson makes frequent appearances in front of the daily class, sitting in a chair facing the room full of participants.
“She works them harder than my DVD,” Meyers said before a class on Wednesday morning. “They’re exhausted.”
The class was bustling; usually six or eight people show up, Meyers said, but a dozen residents made their way to the communal room on Wednesday, some sitting in chairs, others in wheelchairs. Projecting her voice outward, Nilson led the group in some head movements, turning her head left and right, bringing her chin to her chest and looking up, holding each pose momentarily before moving on.
The class copied her movements in unison, before taking a moment to rest at the end.
“That should take care of your neck muscles,” Nilson said. “Now let’s try our arms.”
The class moved on to their arms, then torsos, then legs, with exercises including holding their arms in front of them, touching their ankles and pointing their toes inward and outward repeatedly.
A regular sitting in the front row, Natalie Loomis, 99, was among those following along.
“I’m ready to join the Olympics,” Loomis joked as she followed Nilson’s lead.
Later, Loomis said she loves the class not just because of the exercise, but also because of Nilson’s leadership. “I like the exercise, but I admire Hazel. I think she’s terrific,” Loomis said. “She does it all with a smile. You don’t feel like you’re working with her.”
Throughout the class, Nilson repeated a constant refrain: “If you’re in pain, don’t do it.”
“If you can only do one side, do one side,” she said. “Don’t be brave.”
She underscored this advice later in the class.
“If you want to live to 108, do it,” she said. “Listen to your body.”
Maggie Cassidy can be reached at mcassidy@vnews.com or 603-727-3220.