Community Corner

A Century of Stories to Tell

Residents at Mulberry Gardens gathered to help Katharina Scheck celebrate her 103rd birthday on Tuesday – and she's still going strong.

There aren’t many things that resident Katharina Scheck hasn’t seen in her lifetime.

Born in the Bulgarian section of southeast Germany 1909, the Southington resident came to the United States by herself with nothing but a few pairs of clothes when she was just 15-years-old. Through a strong personality, she built a life for herself that would make anyone proud – and she’s still going strong.

The 103-year-old resident of the assisted living facility celebrated her birthday on Tuesday, enjoying music and cake with fellow residents as they honored her life of achievement. If you ask Scheck, however, she will tell you it’s just not a big deal.

“I don’t understand why they have all this for me. It’s not something to fuss over,” Katharina Scheck said. “I’m just living as I always have.”

Described as an independent and strong-willed woman, staff at Mulberry Gardens said they need “to be quick” when working with Scheck because she is still mobile and has the desire to take care of herself. In fact, the only faculty that has suffered at all is her sense of hearing.

Arlene Paige, a certified nursing assistant who works regularly with Scheck, said she has been impressed by the energy and wit that she continues to show everyday.

“She’s a kind lady, but she knows what’s going on and she’ll stand her ground,” Paige said. “When she first came to live with us, we knew we had to be quick or she’d do everything for herself. She is a favorite among the staff here.”

Scheck’s life may seem simple enough to the immigrant who found a home in America, but it’s hardly anything to look past. In fact, the 103-year-old has lived through more than most people would have been able to endure, her daughter Irene Scheck said.

Born in the small town of Bad Toelz, Katharina Scheck was the youngest of three girls born to Baltazar and Ottilie Zacherl. While many during her time would have spoken about the turn of the century, she was instead born into a life of poverty.

The Zacherl family owned a small farm that specialized in producing lemons and roots for homemade beverages that were sold to restaurants nearby. Without any brothers, the family struggled to make ends meet and Katharina was forced to help of the farm and make deliveries to nearby restaurants, her daughter said.

“She worked hard, right from birth. She had to,” Irene Scheck said. “There were times when she was asked to jump out and run ahead of the cart to collect payment and prepare businesses for the deliveries.”

It wasn’t all work, however. Katharina Scheck recalls fondly the bicycle rides she had through the country and still describes in vivid detail the one-room schoolhouse where students from every grade level came together to read and write.

“There were some fun times,” she said.

But with the family’s struggles, Katharina found herself facing enormous challenges at a very young age. In 1924, her father set her up with a job as a housemaid working with a prominent doctor in New York City and she was sent alone to the United States. She didn’t speak a word of English and soon found herself building a new life, Irene Scheck said.

The doctor offered boarding and an education and eventually she settled in, working in a home that also had a cook, nanny and butler. She sent every dollar she made back home, hoping to help her family out but eventually they were forced to sell the farm anyway.

Following the sale of the farm, Katharina settled down with a fellow German immigrant, John Scheck, and the two raised a family together, but Scheck never gave up her career.

“It was what she knew,” Irene Scheck said. “She retired at 65 and only because we convinced her it was time. I still remember it like it was yesterday – she never made more than $1 an hour.”

Katharina Scheck ended up in Connecticut shortly after her husband’s death in 1984, living in an apartment in Cheshire to be near her daughter, a Wallingford resident. As she got older, she eventually moved in with Irene and her husband before finding a home at Mulberry Gardens the last several years.

So what is the secret to a long life? If you ask those around her, they will tell you it has to be her strong personality.

“She is one of the strongest women we have ever had here,” said Maria Tarantino, Harmony Place coordinator at Mulberry Gardens. “It’s her personality we all love and that’s what keeps her going.

Irene Scheck said her mother has always had that strong will and believes that not only is it the secret to success, but one that will keep her alive for years to come.

“My husband has said it 100 times, ‘she’s going to outlive us all’,” Irene Scheck said. “It’s starting to look like he might be right.”


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