• My great-grandmother Memmie lived to be 100. • She was direct, confident, and always stayed busy. • When my husband and I asked for her secret to a long life, her simple answer surprised us.

"How was your weekend?" I once asked my great-grandmother.

"Good, I was out visiting the 'old folks,'" she said with a grin.

The "old folks" she was referring to were the people living in the retirement home — unlike my great-grandmother, who was still living independently in her house. I couldn't help but giggle, because she was 91 years young at the time.

I always loved spending time with my great-grandmother

Mabel Wells — or Memmie, to her family — lived her entire life in rural Kentucky. During the hourlong drive to her house, my younger sister and I counted cows and tried to guess which

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