103 and counting

My mother will turn 103 later this month, a fact I can't quite believe. But then, neither can she.

During my recent visit to the nursing home where she lives now, she told me she thought it was "kind of neat" the way people make such a fuss about her age. As they should.

She's lived through two world wars plus countless other wars, seen the emergence of television, watched men walk on the moon and witnessed the invention of everything from Twinkies to texting, among a million other things. She might not remember what she had for breakfast, but she can tell you in detail about the time she walked along a beach on Long Island in her new white shoes and got oil from a sunken German U-boat on them.

The year was 1917. She was five.

I try to imagine what the world might be like if I were to make it to 103. What inventions -- things beyond our imagining -- will have changed the way we live? Would I, as Mom does, recall the old days as better days, despite past hardships and disappointments?

Time will tell.

Just don't ask me what I had for breakfast.