It was a party at the Rod and Gun Club in West Penn Saturday, where one Breinigsville resident celebrated an accomplishment that’s been 100 years in the making. 

Susan Heath was born at her home in Coaldale on Jan. 30, 1919. She attended school in Mckeansburg until she was 14-years-old, when, as she put it, “they threw us out.”

“After 14, you didn’t have to go to school,” Heath said with a chuckle.

Heath married for the first time in her early 20’s. She worked as a fabric trimmer in a factory until she was divorced and had to look for a higher paying job. That’s when she took up a job at the Atlas Powder Company making blasting caps for dynamite.

“They were paying better than anyplace else,” Heath said. “They paid 81 cents an hour, and that was big wages.”

The real explosives, Heath said, were constructed just across the river.

Over the last century, Heath has spent most of her life living in Tamaqua. She’s raised three daughters and a son.

But Heath’s not sure how she feels about hitting triple digits. While living to see 100 is without a doubt a milestone, age has taken a toll on her eyesight, and Heath can no longer complete her favorite pastimes, namely reading and crossword puzzles.

“I used to do crossword puzzles, everyone that there was,” Heath said. 

But as is the case with every one of life’s bittersweet moments, there’s a silver lining, and for Heath, it came in the form of her centenarian 

celebration.

“Today is good,” Heath said. I’m seeing people that I haven’t seen in 30 - 40 years.”

As for advice for living a long life, Heath’s words of wisdom are some you may hear often but typically fail to take to heart: Take care of yourself.

“I tell people ‘take your vitamin C.’ It worked for me,” Heath said.

Caption:

Susan Heath rang in her 100

^th 

birthday at the Rod and Gun Club in West Penn. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS