Obituary of Mary Birge

Services set for Mary Birge BURDETT, April 5 -- A graveside service for Mary H. Birge of Burdett, who died March 29 at the age of 100 1/2, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 7 at Hector Presbyterian Cemetery, 5516 Rte. 414, Hector. A memorial service has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 9 at the Burdett United Methodist Church, 4011 Lake Road, Burdett. Mary, born August 5, 1911, celebrated her 100th birthday last August at a party in her honor at the Silver Spoon Cafe in the Schuyler County Human Services Complex, Montour Falls. Her only relatives are nieces and nephews who live in Colorado. One of them, Jackie Slater, says she and her husband plan to attend the memorial service and "attend to Mary's affairs." Mrs. Slater, in an email, said this: "Since Mary was over one hundred years of age, she never used a computer. Having out-lived many friends and family, she acquired younger and younger friends who certainly do use computers! My brothers and I are the only direct relatives she had. We are Mary's sister's children and all of us live in Colorado. "Mary spent her early years enjoying farm life north of Burdett with her mother, Lillian Birge, her father, Benjamin Birge, and her younger sister Grace. She attended Watkins Glen High School and went to teaching college and on to nursing school. She had a long career at the Veteran's Hospital in Canandaigua, working with the psychiatric patients, until her retirement in the 1960s. "In her spare time, Mary loved gardening and cooking. She loved her church and her friends. She delighted in reading her family history and always kept track of current events. Mary also enjoyed hearing about the generations that have followed: her two nephews and one niece; three grand-nephews and four grand-nieces, and five great-grand nephews and three great-grand nieces! (And two more babies are on the way at the end of this year.) "Mary visited Colorado when we were children and delighted in the airline travel, the Rocky Mountains and teaching me how to tie my shoes! She was a great lady and quite a character. "It doesn't seem possible she has passed. I loved her wonderful way of taking life on her own terms. She enjoyed every day God gave her. And He gave her many days!" At her 100th birthday celebration, Mary said she had never married, had never had any children. "Oh, I've been in love," she said, "but the gentlemen who proposed to me, I didn't love. I couldn't see living with them, being their wife. But it's all worked out pretty well." She said she had "no arthritis, no diabetes, and I have a good appetite. Food tastes good to me. I'm able to use my legs, although I did have a hip replacement and I use a walker." She would, she said, "like to go another 10 or 20 years. It's not unheard of. But it's not in my hands; it's up to God."