Greeson: After 116 years, wonder what tips Mrs. Jones would give?

May 17, 2016 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated May 16, 2016 at 11:25 p.m.

by Jay Greeson

In this Monday, June 22, 2015, photo, Lois Judge, left, helps her aunt Susannah Mushatt Jones, during breakfast in Jones' room at the Vandalia Avenue Houses, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Jones, the world's oldest person, has died in New York at age 116. Robert Young, a senior consultant for the Gerontology Research Group, says Jones died at a senior home in Brooklyn Thursday night, May 12, 2016. He said she had been ill for the past 10 days.
In this Monday, June 22, 2015, photo, Lois Judge, left, helps her aunt Susannah Mushatt Jones, during breakfast in Jones' room at the Vandalia Avenue Houses, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Jones, the world's oldest person, has died in New York at age 116. Robert Young, a senior consultant for the Gerontology Research Group, says Jones died at a senior home in Brooklyn Thursday night, May 12, 2016. He said she had been ill for the past 10 days.

100 years and counting

Do you know someone in the area who is 100 years old or older? Please pass along names and contact information to Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.

photo Jay Greeson

Susannah Mushatt Jones, who spent most of her life in New York City, died Friday. It was sudden, because the end of any life always is.

But Mrs. Jones' life was anything but sudden.

She was the last living American to be born in the 1800s, according to the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records. She reportedly had been battling illness for about 10 days before dying in her sleep Friday night.

She was born July 6, 1899, at a time when the world was first learning of Marconi's crazy invention called the "radio" and the aftermath of the Spanish-American war was being hashed out.

Can you imagine? Mrs. Jones - and yes, the sheer image of an elderly woman that strong requires the use of a courtesy title - was born 116 years, 10 months, 10 days ago this morning. It was 42,684 days ago. For Pete's sake, Mrs. Jones was born before the first official American motor vehicle fatality. (Since Henry H. Bliss died in a car wreck on Sept. 14, 1899 - he was struck by an electric car as he stepped from a streetcar in New York City - we now average almost 100 deaths on U.S. roads per day.)

Think about the transition and advancement in terms of media and medicine, technology and transportation, everything else.

Here is a list of things created after Mrs. Jones: The Ford Motor Co. Vacuum cleaners. Plastic.

She was born in Alabama, where her black father was unable to vote. She was one of 11 kids of Callie and Mary Mushatt, and according to the New Yorker, she and her siblings walked seven miles to the Calhoun Colored School.

Heck, she was a full-grown adult with a life and kids when the Great Depression hit.

Can you imagine her views on life? Can you not help but wonder what she thought about this craziness we call life in 2016?

She moved north and found work as a nanny that led her to work for a movie executive. She met some of the biggest stars of the time - including Ronald Reagan - and became a renowned cook.

She paid the way for many of her siblings and their children to go to college. She retired in 1965, so yes, she was retired for more than 40 years.

When she turned 100, she finally stopped cooking for herself and was forced to stop participating in her neighborhood watch program because her vision was fading.

Until the very end, Mrs. Jones ate bacon every morning - four pieces, according to reports - and defied the odds at every turn. She missed the chance to vote in November in an election featuring the first potential female president.

Regardless of who wins, it would have been the 21st president of her lifetime.

So now that she's gone, I can't help but wonder what her message would be. What advice would she give to those of us who move too fast, eat too fast, talk too fast and live too fast?

We are too often talking about lost time and lives well spent.

Mrs. Jones made the most of each.

Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jgreesontfp. His "Right to the Point" column runs on A2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

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