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“I wasn’t doing much and I thought, well, I can sit through this,” she said.

Adele, one of Horne’s caretakers at Rock Haven said she has not just sat through her older years. In fact, she is one of the most active 102-year-olds Adele said she has ever met.

“She keeps up with me in every workout and never misses a beat,” Adele said.

Horne grew up in Plainfield and later moved to Stevens Point. She came down to Janesville to train as a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital and worked in the maternity ward delivering babies.

She said she decided to become a nurse after high school, following in the footsteps of some of her friends who were working as nurses.

“I lived up north in Plainfield then and there wasn’t much traffic up there,” she said. “It gave me something to do.”

She said she circulated around to different departments but decided her favorite thing to do was work in maternity.

She didn’t give a year that she retired from nursing but she stopped working for a bit when she got married in 1945. She went back to work later.

“You never stop being a nurse,” she said. “You just don’t quit.”

She even said her friends often called her seeking medical advice and she enjoyed working as a nurse because she was around people and got to help them.

“You have to be compassionate with people,” she said. “People have to be of interest to you. I enjoy being with people, and I like to hear them talk about their lives.”

She said she enjoyed bringing babies into the world, and even delivered some herself. She said she probably was present for the birth of hundreds of babies.

Early life and traveling

Horne’s father was a U.S. postal carrier. He had summers off and in those months would take her and her brother and mother traveling all over the United States.

“We went to California. And we went to Florida and we went to Texas,” she said. “We went just about everywhere. We went all together. It was a big challenge for four people but we made it work.”

Her mother taught her how to knit and sew. Horne was also a cross country skier and was very physically active in her younger years.

Knitting

Horne said her favorite thing to do today is knit. She makes sweaters with intricate patterns. Some of the patterns she has memorized and others she makes up as she goes along.

She has knit hats, scarves and even a phone pouch to hang from her neck so her phone is always accessible. She also knits phone pouches for other residents of the nursing home.

She has rheumatoid arthritis that affects her hand mobility so it takes her a couple of weeks to finish the items she knits but that doesn’t stop her.

“I have knit over 300 hats and scarves,” she said. “I give them away to people that need it.”

She also enjoys sitting outside and enjoys Rock Haven’s flower boxes filled with tomatoes, strawberries and other fresh produce residents can pick and eat.

She said that she doesn’t know where she finds the energy to do all these things she “just has it.”

Horne also enjoys playing BINGO, exercising, watching the Milwaukee Brewers and other sports and playing card games like Euchre.

She said over her lifetime she has seen many changes in technology in the medical field and in automobiles but one of the best inventions was the telephone.

The telephone “just keeps getting better,” she said.

If she had any life advice to offer it would be to do what you like and to do things for yourself, and not to try and outdo others.