In an excerpt from her poem, “My Philosophy,” 99-year-old Rena Lamontagne explains in 30 short and simple sentences the “rules” she has lived by throughout her long life.
Noting that many people nowadays put too much value on money and possessions, Rena advises: “Love, caring and personal relationships are more important than accumulating things.”
Rena, the sole surviving sibling in a line of 13 brothers and sisters, will turn 100 years old Monday and has weekend plans to celebrate with four generations of family members – people she celebrates in her poetry as the ones who “can help you through the tough times and give you great joy.”
The Gilroyan has always loved reading and writing – despite never completing her high school education, according to Rena’s daughter-in-law Jennifer Lamontagne who is married to Rena’s youngest son, Jerry, 55. The couple lives in Morgan Hill.
“It was much more common back in those days for people to not graduate high school,” explained Jennifer.
In Rena’s case, she dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to help support her family during the Great Depression. She held a number of odd jobs throughout the early 1930s – one being a factory worker at a cotton mill. Rena said she worked at the same factory where her mother had worked when she was her age. Despite harsh working conditions, Rena said she was one of the lucky ones who did not get trapped working there her entire life.
“My parents never asked me to quit school, but I felt that I owed it to them to start working. They had given me and my siblings so much,” Rena recalled. She described her parents as honest, poor people who worked their hardest to provide for their large family.
Rena is a mother of five, grandmother of 18 and great-grandmother of seven. Her late husband, Joseph Roland Lamontagne – an auto body man for most of his life – passed away in 1993 at the age of 80. Joseph served in the Army and Marine Corps during the last two years of World War II from 1943-1945 and is now buried in a veterans’ cemetery in Los Angeles.
“I had two of my children while my husband was in the service,” Rena said. “I remember we would write to each other every day.”
The couple’s oldest son, John Paul, passed away three years ago at the age of 71 from a heart attack. Rena described him as the kindest person she ever knew.
“From the time he was able to walk, he was helping everyone he met,” Rena said, her eyes gleaming with pride.
Rena, who grew up in Maine and married in 1937, has lived by herself ever since her husband’s passing.
“I still take care of myself. I make my own breakfast and dinner but I do have lunch downstairs,” said the soon-to-be centenarian, who has resided in her own studio apartment in Merrill Gardens’ Village Green of Gilroy on Isabella Way for the past five years.
To put 100 years into perspective, Rena has not only lived through World War I and World War II, but she has lived to see the invention of the Internet and the rise of the “Digital Age”. She was a part of the Great Depression and the Great Recession. She lived through Franklin D. Roosevelt’s passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set minimum wage at 25 cents per hour, and the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which raised the nationwide minimum hourly wage in 2009 to $7.25 per hour.
Julie Jensen, Active Living Director for Village Green, said it amazes her that at Rena’s age she is still able to get on the bus and do her own grocery shopping.
“She won’t even let anyone help her carry her bags,” Jensen noted. “She’s very active and always walking around.”
Jensen added that Rena is “much loved” in Village Green and passes out chocolate and candies to everyone she passes in the hallways.
“She’s bright and witty ” Jensen said with a smile. “She often has lunch with another lady here, Jane, and they make jokes with each other.”
Having lived in more than 40 places – including Maine, Colorado and California – throughout her lifetime, Rena last resided in Marysville, Calif. before her two sons in Morgan Hill (Jerry and Joe) decided they wanted her living closer and under a watchful eye.
Prior to Marysville, Rena had been living in Colorado with her third oldest son, Jim. He built an apartment for his mother near his property in anticipation of Rena residing there for the rest of her life. Leaving Jim was hard, Rena admits, but she chose to move back to California to be closer to her final resting place.
“My husband was buried in Los Angeles and I want to be buried with him,” Rena said. “I probably could have stayed in Colorado a few more years though, because I was not predicting that I was going to live this long.”
Rena, who had her nails done recently with hot pink nail polish and small white floral accents, lived on her own until she was 95.
Sitting attentively in a chair in the lobby of Village Green with her walking cane resting at her side, Rena – who does not miss a beat and is a lively conversationalist – said she does not plan to move in with her family because she does not want to be a burden.
“My family means all the world to me,” she said, smiling broadly in a moment of maternal pride. “My sons in Morgan Hill visit every once in a while and I talk on the phone all the time with all my children. But the last thing I want to lose is my independence – I’m holding on tight to it.”
Born in South Portland, Maine as Rena Simoneau on Aug. 12, 1913 to Arthur and Elizabeth Simoneau, Rena is the second youngest out of a baker’s dozen children. All of Rena’s eight brothers and four sisters have passed away; three sisters and three brothers died before Rena was even born. Due to a lack of medicine in those days, those six siblings died when they were toddlers from common illnesses that could have been easily cured in modern times.
Although she has a positive outlook and philosophy on life, outliving her siblings and her oldest son weighs heavy on Rena’s heart.
“I never planned to live this long and I would have never expected it. I don’t plan to live another 10 years though or even three,” she said, serenely.
As a young woman, Rena enjoyed staying active, dancing and listening to the popular music of the time. She and her husband enjoyed dancing to the big bands on the Lawrence Welk Show, even though Rena teased Roland that he had two left feet.
Nowadays, “the apartment I live in is small, but the kitchen is big enough to hold a dance in,” Rena joked.
She plans to celebrate her 100th birthday Sunday afternoon since her actual birthday falls on a Monday. Her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will visit Village Green to enjoy cake and live music from Rita Beach, a singer for the assisted living home, who will perform for a few hours.
