MAMOU, La. (KLFY)- Vernice Celestine Ardoin, 92, strolls the corridors where she lived for many years. 

It’s safe to say she’s the senior resident and proud of it. 

“I’ve lived in Savoy Heights for 19 years. I can recall when I moved here,” she said.

Vernice said she can remember when times were not as they they are now. “They were good memories, oh yes.”

She said she was born and raised in Mamou with four brothers and three sisters. Her parents were farmers. 

“We raised cows, hogs, sheep, goats, chicken and ducks,” Ardoin said. The times were different then, she said.

“You didn’t sit with your elders. There was no conversation that older people had you in. It’s so different today.”

Ardoin got married when she was 16 year old. A time came when she found herself as a single parent with four children. 

She has to earn a living, and she did. 

I barbecued from 8 a.m. to 12 or 1 a.m. at night. “It was hard work, but she said she loved it. “I was able to buy me a little house,” she said.

Of her four children, only her boys are still living. Both are ministers and willing to give her advice about slowing down her age. “I’m proud of them,” she said.

 

“They say, ‘Ma, you know your old.’  I say, that’s just a number.”

For her, it’s not how long you live. It’s how you live that determines quality of life.

 

“I believe it’s not worry. I don’t worry too much,” she said.