Mathilda Comeaux says she never thought she would be the one in her family to reach the age of 99.

She has a picture of every milestone. “I don’t know, I guess praying and doing different things. anything I could do.”

Mathilda was born in Port Barre. She says everyone worked in the fields.

She explains there was water everywhere. “We had like a boat and paddle the boat through the water.”

Mathilda is grateful to have had strong women around her.

Her mother and grandmother guided her through life.

She has one sister and a stepbrother.

“I had a lot of friends. Some of my friends would come over and we would jump rope and cook,” she recalls.

The family eventually moved to Opelousas.

She says the city has changed. “Times have changed. I mean changed.”

Mathilda moved to Washington, Louisiana.

She became a lifelong resident there.

She explains that she married a mature and responsible man. “I didn’t want nobody younger than me. I always wanted somebody older.”

Mathilda came from a small family but has a brought into being a large family of her own.

The family says she had seven children and seven step-children.

“All that getting together fighting; we didn’t go there. All my children getting together and fighting? Oh, no,” she says.

Her advice for anyone including her own children is to follow the Golden Rule “you reap what you sow.”

“Treat everybody like they want to be treated. If you want to be treated good, then treat somebody else good,” she says.