Centenarian puts down her longevity to genes

There was no doubt what was happening at number 10 on the Alte St Wolfgang Strasse in the municipality earlier this month, as a huge banner saying “Congratulations, Alice, on the occasion of your hundredth birthday,” was strung up in the street, along with a number of colourful celebratory balloons. It was inside where Alice Weibel herself received a large number of family members and friends, prior to having her photograph taken with citizens’ councillor, Bruno Werder, and the secretary to the citizens’ council, Patricia Diermeier (as shown).
 
To look at the birthday girl, who has been a widow since 1974, one would never know she was 100; she still looks after herself in her own home. “I have been very lucky. Sometimes I can hardly believe I have reached this age myself, but perhaps it is as a result of my genes, after all, my mother lived to be 103, and my sister 99.”
 
Weibel herself was actually born in Zurich, but followed the man whom she was to marry first to Vitznau in the canton of Lucerne, then Cham and Rheinfelden in the canton of Argovia, before settling in Hünenberg. She moved into her current home with her husband, a member of Hünenberg citizens’ corporation, and her three children at the afore-mentioned address in 1953 and has lived there ever since. It was in the Fifties that her husband took over the Weibel joinery business, and Alice recalled it was not an easy time. We had to replace all the old machinery and find money for renovation of our house at the same time,” she said. “There was no proper flushing toilet and the cooking facilities were very elementary. And, of course, we did not have things such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners, which people take for granted now. Technical progress today is amazing, isn’t it? What with digitisation and such like.”
 
Through her husband being a member of the Master Joiners’ Association, Alice has been able to accompany him on many visits abroad, for example to China, the United States, Russia and Hungary. “However, I was always very happy to return home to Hünenberg,” she said, as she recalled how people in Russia had to queue for basics like bread and milk.
 
It was back in the Fifties, too, that there were only a few houses and farms in Hünenberg, its population only 1,500; now it is almost 15,000.
 
Nearly seventy years on, Weibel is not just a mother to three, but a grandmother to 11 and great-grandmother to 15, the youngest having only been born on 1 June. “And I know all of them by name, even if I have to stop and think for a moment,” she admitted.
 
As to her hobbies, she enjoys playing cards with friends twice a week, sometimes entertaining them in her own home.

And did she have a particular centenary birthday wish?
“I am happy without wanting anything special,” she replied.