Cool sign helps Michigan’s most-seasoned resident celebrate 112th birthday
Pop A Card In Your Yard donated this special yard sign for Bonita Gibson’s 112th birthday on July 4.
Canton resident Bonita Gibson’s 112th trip around the sun was celebrated in style Tuesday, thanks in part to Pop A Card In Your Yard, a Romulus-based company that celebrates milestones with eye-catching yard signs.
After reading in April on SocialHouseNews.com that Gibson’s 112th was approaching on July 4, Pop A Card owner Jennifer Kraft went to work, designing a special yard sign that she placed along Canton Center Road, just west of the Waltonwood Carriage Park senior-living center.
Gibson, who was born in 1911 — one year before the Titanic sank — is recognized as the oldest person in Michigan.
Gibson takes her special endurance distinction in stride.
“I don’t even think about it,” she said with a sincere tone, during an interview with SocialHouseNews.com in April.
“It really doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m just happy to be as healthy as I am. Whenever the nurse comes in to check me, she tells me she can’t believe how good my (vitals) are.”
Joy-spreading company
Pop a Card in Your Yard is a family-owned company focused on spreading peace, love, and happiness one yard at a time, its website shares.
“Our greatest accomplishment is to bring a little joy into everyone’s lives: from birthdays, to weddings, graduations and more, we strive to make your special day even better!”
To learn more about the unique metro-Detroit business, click here.
Never a smoker or a drinker, Gibson said her simplistic diet during her younger years probably played a role in her longevity.
“We didn’t have a lot of money,” she said. “What money we did have, my aunt and uncle bought coffee and sugar. Everything we ate, we grew ourselves.
“Once a month, my uncle would go to town and buy oranges and bananas. My aunt would mix them together and that would be our dessert for three or four days.”
Historic accomplishment
To put Gibson’s amazing longevity in perspective, the average life expectancy in the United States in 2020 was 79.1 years — a milestone she passed in 1991.
And according to cdc.org, the number of people alive in 2015 who were 110 years old or older was somewhere between 150 and 600.
Gibson’s best advice for living to 100 and beyond?
“Don’t complain and learn to eat fruits and vegetables,” she said, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses.
And if you live as long as Gibson, you’d better learn to blow out a lot of birthday candles.
If you have a good-news story idea for SocialHouseNews.com, please contact Ed Wright at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
