105-year-old ahead of her time
Helen Karnold may be old, but she is ahead of her time as well.
Before it was trendy and "green" to garden, Karnold grew her own fruits and vegetables and canned them at her home in Joplin, Mo.
Before "low-fat" was a marketing cliché, she raised her own chickens but refused to eat the skin and trimmed off the fat when it came time to eat them.
"It used to kill me to see her skin the fat off of chicken. She was doing that 50 years ago," said Rockford resident Mary Wulff, Karnold's former daughter-in-law. "She always made sure every day she'd had her vegetables."
Believed to be Elgin's oldest living resident, Karnold celebrated her 105th birthday Friday with family members and other residents at the Heritage Manor nursing home.
For Karnold, who moved to Elgin in 1970 after the death of her husband, Gus, turning 105 wasn't much different from hitting 104.
"I feel the same as I always have," she said.
Karnold had a mild heart attack two weeks ago, so she was in a wheelchair and had oxygen.
Her family members, though, said she was normally very active, hit the tennis ball around when she was in her late 80s and only stopped wearing high heels two years ago.
Rockford resident Philip Long, who is Karnold's grandson, said she took doctor's orders to heart and took care of herself. She read romance novels well into her 90s before her eyesight declined.
"She's always been very outgoing. She was very independent," he said.
Sue Olafson, the city of Elgin's spokeswoman, presented Karnold with a proclamation from Mayor Ed Schock declaring the day as "Helen Karnold Day."
Karnold has two children, 11 grandkids, 18 great-grand children and three great-great-grandchildren.
The momentous birthday also was good reason for two of Karnold's great grandchildren, siblings Gracie, 8, and James Kassanits, 10, of Roselle to get out of school for the day.
Gracie planned to tell her second-grade class all about the party when she returned to school on Monday.
"I'm really excited it's her birthday," Gracie said. "(My classmates) don't even believe how old she is."