Long-time Morgan Hill resident celebrates a century of life
While Helen Cloud may be slowing down a little and can’t remember things quite like she used to, she hardly seems like she has reached the century mark.
Today, Cloud celebrates 100 years of life.
Cloud will be at the senior center where she will celebrate with her friends, eat cake and reminisce on her long life.
Looking back, Cloud said she can’t identify any particular habit that led to her longevity, except that she has, for the most part, stayed healthy and active.
“I can’t believe I have lived this long,” Cloud said. “I never got (seriously) sick and I only had surgery three times.”
Cloud, a 35-year resident of Morgan Hill, now lives with her granddaughter Catherine Areias who takes care of her full time. She was born in Petaluma in 1905 and lived in San Mateo among other places in the Bay Area before moving to Morgan Hill in 1970.
Areias said although her grandmother is fairly independent, she still needs someone to help her with her daily affairs.
But Cloud has never been one to let her age slow her down. She didn’t even stop driving until she was 95 and even then it wasn’t by choice.
“We never had any big arguments, except when I took the car away,” Areias said.
In her youth, Cloud was a waitress until she married her second husband about the same time World War II started.
She later traveled throughout Europe, Central America, the Eastern United States and New Zealand. Cloud’s favorite trip was to Central America where she saw the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan Peninsula of southern Mexico.
In the past, Cloud also bred boxers for dog shows and later became a judge.
In the 1950’s, she sold dogs to Cuba before Fidel Castro took over. Cloud later learned several of the people who bought dogs from her were killed under Castro’s government.
Her modest home is lined with pictures she has taken and acquired over the years, including a photograph the sun setting across the Morgan Hill skyline following the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
Cloud now spends her day reading, when she is not eating lunch at the senior center or at the Friendly Inn.
While Cloud did not grow up in Morgan Hill, she was here long enough to watch it grow and develop. While she loves Morgan Hill, she wishes the city never lost its many orchards.
“When I moved here, it was nothing but prune orchards,” Cloud said. “It is sad that they are gone.”
Cheeto Barrera is an intern at the Morgan Hill Times. He can be reached at cb******@mo*************.com.
