Mt. Pleasant, S.C. (WCIV) — She didn't mean to, but she did it anyway.
Helen Antman celebrated her 102nd birthday on Wednesday.
Every morning, she said she’s up and at 'em.
"I like my morning showers, not everybody does," she said. Antman beats everyone at Sweetgrass Village Nursing Home to the showers.
"Most of the time, they're all sleeping when I get up," she said. Each morning, she thinks about the activities of the day with her morning beverage.
But on Wednesday, she knew the day's activities were all about Helen.
The Brooklyn, New York native, still with a sharp memory, had a career in advertising. “I sold ads that were in another newspaper, and then I sold them into my newspaper," Antman said. "I wanted to go into television, it was brand new back then."
She and her husband of 58 years raised their two sons in Chicago. The snow of the winter began to get old and her sons thought it was time for a change.
"'Mama, you're going south, you're moving south,'" Antman recalls her son told her.
She never knew that meant Mount Pleasant.
"I said, ‘South Brooklyn?’ He says 'No, to South Carolina.'"
It's been 38 years since she came to the Lowcountry.
Antman said she’s had a life of fun and a life of smiles and suggests everyone else should, too.
"Enjoy your life every day. You have to smile and laugh at something, even if you're laughing at your neighbor," she said.
Antman is the oldest person her nursing home.