When Alice Sumner was 20, she moved to the United States with her siblings and parents in April 1945 after being in the Philippines when the Japanese took over the area during World War II.
Sumner is now 101 years old and celebrated her birthday on Jan. 19. Sumner was accompanied by her grandson, Jeffrey, during a conversation on Sunday morning to reflect on her century-plus-one.
When asked what she is looking forward to this year, she said spending time with her great-grandchildren and going to the casinos with her friends.
“I have two great-grandsons. One is 10 and the other one is (4). I’m looking forward to seeing the little one, because they’re from San Diego. It’s a little bit closer,” Sumner said. “The other one lives in North Dakota. So he goes to school, so it’s pretty hard for them to come down here because of the school.”
Sumner said she has always been a fan of sewing and did costume designing for shows like “Phantom of the Opera” in Las Vegas and sewed graduations gowns as well.
“Another thing I made … for one high school graduation, I did all the gowns for them, for the graduation, over 300 gowns I made … that was at Long Beach High School,” Sumner said.
She added that she used the money she made from sewing to go traveling, saying that her 17-day trip to Italy was one of her favorites and that she has been on 31 cruises throughout her life.
Sumner said she looks back on her life and has many memories, but one in particular came to mind.
“I took care of my grandson. I used to babysit him. Now he’s living with me … But I used to sew (with) one foot on the stroller, and I’d babysit my grandson while my daughter goes to work. And I use one foot for the sewing machine and one foot on the stroller,” Sumner said while laughing with Jeffrey.
Sumner said that there was one piece of advice that she tells her family – always do the right thing because “when you live right, everything will come out right.”
“‘Never fight,’ I said, ‘don’t argue (with) nobody.’ If you don’t argue, they don’t argue back, so you don’t start a fight,” Sumner said about her advice.
Nowadays, Sumner begins her days by riding her stationary bike for at least 10 minutes to get going.
