Glenna: What was the best day of my life? The day I was born, honey. [laughter]
[Theme music begins and goes under]
Terra Lopez, Host: My entire life, I have felt like I’ve been searching for something. I remember even as a young kid, questioning what my life purpose was. And the days that I struggle with my mental health, I still do.
Like most of us, if not all of us, I often wonder what the meaning of life is. What does any of this mean? The good, the bad, the in-between moments?
Life lately can feel a bit monotonous. Especially over the last few years — where time has felt suspended but also fleeting. As I’ve gotten older, I have found that it’s really easy to isolate. I can go for days at a time without truly connecting with someone before I even realize it.
It was during one of those bouts of isolation when I met Glenna. Glenna is a 106-year-old woman who lives in Rio Linda, Calif. She’s a friend’s grandmother. And over the years, I had heard small stories about Glenna — how she plays her piano nearly every day, how she likes to watch “The Bachelor” every Monday night.
Cassie: What do you think about The Bachelor and Bachelorette?
Glenna: What do I think about it? Well, I think they're pretty silly in it. All they do is kiss. Just kiss, kiss, kiss. From one to the other. It’s a wonder they don't catch something … I was the Bachelorette then. (laughter)
Terra: I was intrigued. Not only because she’s 106 — but because I wanted to know how someone stays inspired at that age.
[Theme music swells and dips back under]
Terra: When we talk about getting older, we usually frame the conversation around loss. The things we lose as we age: our cognitive abilities, our mobility, our awareness, our loved ones. I’ve always thought getting older sounded so lonely. But sitting with Glenna in her living room, I saw firsthand a future that I wanted to be a part of.
From CapRadio, you’re listening to “This Is What It Feels Like” … to be 106 years old.
[Theme music comes up and ends]
Cassie: What's your motto, Grandma? Remember?
Glenna: Yeah. Simplify.
Terra: Where do you think you got that from? That motto or that way of life, you know?
[Laughter]
Terra: So just no worries, no stress.
Glenna: Why worry, it doesn't change anything. Right. Well, I don't know why I’m still alive, but it's pretty nice. (Laughter) I don't know why I'm still alive. I’m just lucky, I guess.
[Glenna playing the piano begins and fades under]
Terra: I met Glenna in her home in rural Rio Linda, Calif., where she’s lived for over 40 years. Her maroon colored recliner is in the center of the living room, next to a stack of books and an Alexa. There’s a wall of family photographs in the hallway, lined up next to a couple of framed letters from Barack and Michelle Obama, congratulating her on her 100th birthday. Her granddaughters, Sara and Cassie McFarland are with us helping facilitate the conversation. Because, Glenna is hard of hearing these days.
Cassie: Grandma, did you ever imagine you would be this old?
Glenna: I never thought about it. What do you think about it?
Cassie: I do. Because of you.
Glenna: I mean. I mean, do you think you're going to be that old?
Cassie: I think I could be. Yeah, but I don't walk like you always did.
Terra: You probably get this, like, asked all the time. But do you have any secrets?
Glenna: You mean apple cider vinegar?
Terra: Is that your secret?
Glenna: That's what I tell people. They're always asking me that often. Well, I just love it. Apple cider vinegar … [laughter]
Terra: The best day of Glenna’s life was the day she was born.
Glenna: February, the 1st, 1916.
Terra: When I hear Glenna say the year she was born — 1916 — I don’t even know how to process that. And I’m even more baffled when she tells me that she’s as old as her local public library.
Glenna: I'll tell you what that library was put there the same time I was born. The day I was born. I'm not kidding.
Terra: When you think back at all of the historical events that have happened over the last century.
[Old NewsReel of shuttle launch begins: 2, 1, 0 … ]
Terra: All of the inventions
[Old NewsReel of shuttle launch: Liftoff, We have liftoff.]
Terra: The trends, and fads of the decades.
[Clip from “The Ed Sullivan Show”: Elvis Presley (girls screams in jubilation)]
Terra: The Great Depression. Both world wars.
[NewsReel of President Franklin Roosevelt’s national address after the attack of Pearl Harbor: Dec. 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy …]
Terra: Not to mention, this is the second pandemic she’s lived through.
[Orchestral music begins and fades under: "What'll I Do?" by The Paul Whiteman Orchestra]
Terra: Glenna was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio with her mother, father, and two sisters Kerry and Ruby.
Glenna: We'd be singing. You know, what do you call it? What were we doing?
Sara: Harmonizing.
Glenna: Yeah, we did a lot of that.
Terra: Did you have a name?
Glenna: No. No. Just the Hesse Sisters.
Terra: Music has always been Glenna’s first love and was a bonding force for her and her sisters. She tells me that she and her sisters played multiple instruments growing up, and would perform in her town at local establishments.
After she finished college, she decided to follow her sister to Colorado. It was there she met her future husband, saxophone player Howard Duke Walters.
Glenna: My sister Kerry had a very handsome guy, you know, and he was a good friend of the guy I married. They introduced us and we rode in the rumble seat of the guy’s car.
Terra: What's a rumble seat?
Glenna: (laughter) Oh. Well, it's just an open car, but it's got a seat in the back. And that's how I met my husband, Howard.
[Orchestral music starts and fades under: "Okay Toots" by Eddie Cantor]
Terra: Shortly after, Glenna and Howard got married. But it was very short lived.
Glenna: Well, I was teaching school, and he was going to school because I was older than he was by three years. So he went to college. That's when we first met, got married. And he said he didn't want me to live with him because he was in college, you know, and I was the old lady. So anyway, I just put my stuff in the truck and went home and got a lawyer and said, ‘Forget about that.’
Terra: Glenna got the marriage annulled and told Howard that he needed to mature if they were going to be together. This was the ‘30s and Glenna was getting her marriage annulled. Setting clear boundaries with her husband. You don’t hear stories like that from this time period — we don’t hear of women holding their own and leaving situations if they’re unhappy. Eventually, Glenna and Howard would reunite three years later …
[Orchestral music begins again and fades under: "Okay Toots" by Eddie Cantor]
Terra: But only after Howard matured a bit and apologized to Glenna.
Glenna: He calls me up and says, ‘No, we got to get married.’ So he had friends. We got married… again.
Terra: Glenna and Howard would end up having four children: Dan, Glenn, Susie and Wendy. During this time, Howard played saxophone with the popular big band, the Sonny Dunham Orchestra.
[Orchestral music begins: "Nothin'" by The Sonny Dunham Orchestra]
Glenna: Howard was in the big band and played in New York, and I got on the train there and we met Sinatra. He was on the program with Howard, you know, I've got enough Sinatra’s … what do you call it?
Terra: Autograph?
Glenna: Yeah.
Terra: As a touring musician myself, I was enamored hearing stories of those early jazz days in New York but I couldn’t help but wonder how they were able to support themselves in a project like that. Playing in a large orchestra with so many people meant dividing up the money. Glenna tells me that that’s what led her and Howard to form their own family band.
[Orchestral music begins swells and ends definitively: "Nothin'" by The Sonny Dunham Orchestra]
Glenna: Baronettes!
[Piano music begins and goes under: Glenna playing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"]
Terra: Glenna played piano and sang. Howard played the saxophone and their son Glenn played the drums. Soon the Baronettes got their first gig in Michigan, and hauled Glenn & her piano in a trailer, and their youngest child, Wendy, who was a toddler at the time and drove across the country to play their first show as a trio.
Glenna: Oh, that was a dandy.
Terra: Okay, picture this: Glenna was touring the country in a van, hauling a trailer around with a full-sized piano all the while caring for a newborn baby. In the ‘50s?! If you’ve ever been on tour, then you know how difficult it is. The lack of sleep, the constant traveling. It’s a grind. I can’t imagine experiencing all of that on top of taking care of a child and a family while also performing every night.
Terra: How was touring back then? I can’t …
Glenna: Touring?
Terra: Yeah. Like, how was traveling back then? Playing music? What was that like?
Glenna: Well, we had to carry that organ in a van …
Terra: You would bring that to every single venue, you would travel with that?
Glenna: Well, it was different. We had to do that.
Terra: Wow.
Glenna: Well, that's how we started. Well, it was our first job, and we did that for several years in the summer.
Terra: The Baronettes played for years until Howard developed emphysema and had to stop playing the saxophone. But Glenna kept touring — with her son Glenn and daughter Wendy — hitting the road, hauling that piano and trailer across the country.
[Music]
Glenna: I had to do the whole thing. And drive all these places. We had two kitty cats.
Terra: In the van with you?!
Glenna: Yeah. (laugher)
Terra: It’s these moments where you get a clear glimpse into Glenna’s spirit. Her natural ability to go with the flow of life — to forge ahead, no matter what and to have fun while doing it.
[Transition music begins and goes under]
Terra: Do you have any important lessons that you've learned over the years?
Glenna: Lessons? What should you do and what you shouldn’t do?
Terra: Yeah.
Glenna: Well, you shouldn’t do drugs. I don't do drugs. (laughter)
Cassie: Debatable.
Glenna: And you don't smoke!
Terra: Glenna and Howard moved to Sacramento in 1975 and watched their children create their own families. She says she spent a lot of that time making quilts, reading, and listening to music with Howard. In 1991, Howard’s health was severely declining, and after years of battling diabetes, Glenna forced Howard to go to the hospital.
Glenna: Well, I gave him his last meal in the hospital. I fed it to him. Well, it's like this. When my husband died. It didn't even make me cry. He didn't want to go to the hospital and I made him go. He had one leg cut off because he had diabetes. And he just wanted to die. He says, ‘I want to croak.’ is what he said. And everybody said, ‘Oh, he wants a Coke.’ (laughter) I said, ‘No, he doesn't want a Coke, because he drinks Pepsis.’ (more laughter) But they said he wanted a Coke.
[Transition music begins and fades under]
Terra: I’m struck by the ease in which Glenna is able to talk about loss. I’m sure she’s had years to process and tell that story, but it’s still remarkable to me that she’s able to laugh at her own personal losses and see the lightness within it.
And even though Glenna has this incredible way of letting go and living in the moment, she does reminisce about Howard and their relationship while I’m there.
Glenna: I fell in love with that saxophone. Yes, I was very much in love with him. (light laughter) Well, whatcha looking at? (lots of laughter)
[Transition music starts and fades under]
Terra: After Howard died, Glenna says she found a new sense of self by taking many solo cross-country trips to state and national parks.
Glenna: You know, all by myself and spent money on myself. I did. I actually did. And I still have the shirt that I bought. I do. It costs me $17.
Terra: Coming up, I ask Glenna what she thinks the meaning of life is - and it’s not going to be what you think.
[Music swells and ends]
[Sponsorship break]
Terra: I want to know. What do you think the meaning of life is?
Terra: I had asked this question, hoping that Glenna was going to reveal some big secret. The big answer to the mystery that we all are trying to figure out.
Glenna: The meaning?
Terra: Yeah.
Glenna: Well, you're born. You have no. You know, it just happens (laughter)
Cassie: You have no choice in the matter. (laugher)
Glenna: You have no choice. (laughter)
Terra: I have to admit, I was a bit let down by her answer, at least initially.
I wanted an easy answer. Something tangible that I could hold onto and take with me. Instant gratification.
And at the time, sitting with her in her living room, I didn’t quite get that. But it was during listening back to this interview, I realized that Glenna gets IT.
Terra: What brings you joy?
Glenna: What brings me joy? Music. I like music. It's the best of everything.
Terra: Glenna tells me that she likes a lot of different genres of music but jazz has always been her number one. She turns to the Alexa that is sitting on her side table.
Glenna: Alexa. Andre Previn needs to play some jazz.
[Music begins and goes under: "This Can't Be Love" by Andre Previn]
Sara: What's your routine? What do you do every morning? What's your steps throughout the day?
Glenna: Good heavens, girl. (laughter) You sure you want to know?
Everyone: Yeah.
Glenna: Yes. Well, I come out here, I have to eat a banana because I love that. And you have to eat something before you take your pills. Okay. Orange juice and a bowl of cereal. Then I come out here and eat a dish of peanuts and my cookies. And watch my soaps.
Terra: Glenna still plays the piano and reads. A LOT. She tells me that she’s kept track of every single book she’s read since she was 65.
Cassie: Grandma, how many books do you have in your journal?
Glenna: Four thousand and one or two? Something.
Terra: Since when?
Glenna: Since I turned 65. I was keeping track of the books I read.
Terra: You've read that many since then?
Glenna: Yeah.
Terra: That's incredible.
Glenna: I've got a written book.
Cassie: How long does each book take to read?
Glenna: About a week.
Cassie: Why don't you tell them what book you got from the library? The big one.
Glenna: Well, it's right over there. It says Barack Obama. And it's that big. No kidding, I'm going to read it, I think.
Terra: Is that your next book that you're going to read?
Glenna: No, I think that I'll leave that to the last.
Terra: I’m struck by her ability to plan ahead at this age. I have a hard time planning out my week, let alone a full list of books I want to read for the winter.
Terra: What are your thoughts on all the technology and cell phones we all have?
Glenna: Well, I usually think we sure waste a lot of time, (laughter) wasting a lot of time.
Terra: As we’re wrapping up the conversation, Glenna’s granddaughter Cassie asks her if she believes in an afterlife.
Glenna: You might as well say zero zero.
Cassie: What's that mean? What do you think?
Glenna: You live your life, that’s all you get.
Terra: My biggest takeaway from sitting and talking with Glenna was the simplicity in everything around her and the immense joy she got from it. Her daily routine of eating peanuts and drinking iced tea while watching soap operas, hanging out with her family, playing the piano. Today, it’s our productivity and output that is praised. It’s go-go-go - all the time, nonstop. Sometimes I forget the ‘why’ in my day-to-day grind, but Glenna seems to always have her ‘why’ in focus. Her secret to living this long, fulfilling life is simply just that - LIVE. Don’t overcomplicate it. Because we don’t have much of a choice in any of this anyway. All we can really do is show up and try to have fun in the process.
[Theme music begins and fades under]
Terra: I’m honored that I got to spend time with Glenna and her granddaughters, Cassie and Sara. It’s not every day that you get to hang out with someone who’s lived well over a century and who has lived through so many historical moments and has seen firsthand the country evolve and progress. But even more than that, I needed it. I needed to see that life can be joyous at that age. That you can still feel inspired and determined and laugh. A LOT. And that we can reinvent ourselves at any age — at any point in our lives — if we stay curious about life and not take everything (and ourselves) so seriously. I used to be afraid of getting older but after hanging out with Glenna, I’m actually kinda excited and curious about what life could be like at 100. If I’m lucky.
Glenna: What was the best day of my life? The day I was born honey. (laughter)
Terra: That was Glenna Lucille Walters of Rio Linda, California. We recorded this interview in the Summer of 2022, two days before her 106th birthday. Two months after this initial interview, Glenna’s youngest sister Ruby passed away at the age of 103.
Glenna turned 107 on February 1, 2023. She spent her birthday celebrating with her family, in her home, doing all of the things that she loved. Exactly one month later on March 1, 2023, Glenna passed away at the age of 107. She was surrounded by her loved ones. The gift of Glenna will stay with me, and I hope it will do the same for you. Thank you, Glenna, for sharing yourself with us.
On the next episode of “This Is What It Feels Like” …
Niko: I always tell people that it was simultaneously the most, like, spiritual and transformative and healing and loving experience of my whole life.
Terra: I speak to four individuals about their abortion experience — the moments before and after, what the actual process is like, and the unexpected emotions that can come after having one.
“This Is What It Feels Like” is a production of CapRadio. Hosted and produced by me – Terra Lopez.
Jen Picard produced and edited the show. Sally Longenecker is our executive producer.
Original theme song and music produced by Wes Jones. Additional music performed and provided by Glenna Lucille Walters and the McFarland family.
Paul Conley is our sound designer.
Chris Bruno is in charge of marketing. Our designs were created by Marisa Espiritu. Renee Thompson is our Digital Products Manager.
We want to thank Sara, Cassie and the entire McFarland family for allowing us to spend time with Glenna. Those afternoons are ones I’ll never forget.
Lastly, I want to thank Carl & Sue Miller whose generous gift was instrumental in making this podcast come to life.
If you want to make sure you don’t miss any episodes, follow or subscribe to this podcast. We’ve got links to resources in our show notes. For photos of our guests and more information, visit capradio-dot-org-slash-FEELS.
Thanks for listening to “This Is What It Feels Like.”
