103-year-old's secret to longevity: 'Work'

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Jane Gutowski wasn’t making a big deal of her birthday Jan. 9.
Family members, special guests and her fellow residents and staff members at St. Mary Health Care Center in Worcester made more of it.
The three candles on her cake explained why: they formed the number 103.
Asked her secret for living that long, Miss Gutowski said simply, “I worked.”
She worked until she was 80, said her niece - her younger sister’s daughter - Judy Donoghue, 72. Mrs. Donoghue attended the party with her daughter Christine Mulry, 49, and her granddaughter Alyssa Mulry, 18, all from St. Patrick Parish in Rutland.
Never married, Miss Gutowski lived with a family, cleaning for them and taking care of their children when they were young, her niece said.
“Who said I stopped working?” piped up the birthday girl, who then said she does nothing now. But she was reminded that she plays Bingo and joins others to pray the rosary.
Did she like her work?
“You did what you had to do,” she said.
For the past 25 years she lived alone in an apartment in Worcester, at first still working, her family said. The last couple years she had caretakers, but not around the clock. It was only last August that family members, concerned about her safety, moved her to St. Mary’s.
What advice would she give today’s young people, like her great-great-niece?
“Stay out of trouble,” replied the 103-year-old. “I think I try to do the right thing.”
She was a life-long member of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Worcester. (Her great-niece said she saved almost every parish bulletin.)
Did her faith help?
“It helped a lot,” Miss Gutowski said. “I never left the Church.” She said she went to church and “said my prayers, like everybody else.”
“I think my life wasn’t too bad,” she added. “Whether you liked it or not, you took what came.”
Special guests at her birthday party included Father Tomasz Gora, associate pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty.
Father Gora talked to her in Polish and English and she told him, “I went to St. Mary’s,” the parish’s elementary school, but not the high school. She said she couldn’t afford it. He gave her a blessing, a picture of the Blessed Mother and some Polish sweets.
Mayor Petty gave her a key to the city, which she was told would open any doors.
Apparently, she’s not looking for new adventures, however. Asked what she would choose if she could do anything she wanted this year, she replied, “Stay put.”
She does get out, however.
“I just love having her at family functions,” said her great-niece. “When my kids were little, she loved to watch them play,” and now she watches their younger cousins.
Miss Mulry describes the centenarian as “a very sassy lady,” who uses “no sugar coating” when talking about things.
Mrs. Mulry said her children are fascinated that their movie-loving great-great-aunt originally paid five cents to see a picture. “The last one I went to was $12,” added her daughter.
“She was always there for the family, helping out in any way she could,” Mrs. Donoghue said.
Now she’s been welcomed into St. Mary’s family. As a fellow resident was leaving the birthday party, she wished the oldest among them a happy birthday – and many more!
Sister Dorothy Scesny, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary who turned 74 that day, was also wished a happy birthday. She is director of mission and pastoral care there.
“We at St. Mary’s are privileged to have residents like Jane, men and women of faith, men and women who honor their families and one another,” she said.