What’s your excuse?
If 104-year-old lobsterer Virginia “Ginny” Oliver doesn’t have an excuse, then I’ll go ahead and answer that question for you and say that you shouldn’t have one. There’s a woman in Maine that’s literally been around for a century, and she’s spent a lot of her life trapping lobsters. Could that be the key to a long and happy life?
To be transparent, it might not be shellfish that’s a key to long living. Instead, in Oliver’s case, it’s staying active and doing something that you love to do for a very long time. She has been out on the water ever since she was 8-years-old, which means this year marks her 96th straight summer fishing and lobster trapping.
Not only is that an incredible streak, it also makes “Ginny” the oldest lobster trapper in Maine – by a long shot. Though she admitted to CBS 13 News that the job of lobstering has gotten a little bit tougher over the years, the 104-year-old is more than happy to power through it. Or as she said:
“Nobody wants to listen to you complain.”
Virginia Oliver actually just turned 104 this past week, and celebrated with friends and family. The “Lobster Lady’s” favorites of ice cream and chocolate cake were on the menu, and according to reports, they celebrated accordingly. That’s easier said than done when you consider all the life that has been lived by Oliver, who even had a children’s book titled The Lobster Lady written about her a couple of years ago.
She’s showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and that’s partially because she likes how the work of lobstering makes her feel. Is it being out on the open sea that gives her the energy to get up and go to work every day after 100 years of living? We can’t rule that out, but she described her motivation for lobstering in a different way:
“I’m still the boss.”
That certainly doesn’t hurt. You can hear more about the “Lobster Lady” and her 104th birthday celebration in the local news spot about Virginia Oliver below:
