SUFFOLK, Va. — Birthdays are a delightful annual reminder that you're one year wiser, and a Suffolk woman is celebrating 106 years.
13News Now got an invitation to the celebration on Thursday, honoring Dorothy Southall.
"We're honoring someone that has lived a good life, and she's done it honestly. She enjoys life. She feels blessed," said Sentara's Karen Spencer, who has helped Southall and her family navigate the health care system.
Southall was born in the Whaleyville area of Suffolk in 1918. That's two years before women gained the right to vote and two months before the end of World War I.
After growing up in Pennsylvania and then working as a nurse in New York City for 20 years, she moved back to Virginia in the late 1980s. She lived on her own in a high-rise apartment building until she was 103-years-old, managing all her own bills and finances.
After a bad fall and an emergency room visit, Southall lived with family and then moved into a residential care home in Norfolk, where she lives today.
"It's just a blessing that she has continued to not only live to be this age, but is still alert and still has a great sense of humor," Dorothy's niece, Voncier Kelly, said on Thursday.
The birthday party was held at Richard Tucker Memorial Library in Norfolk and attended by family members, friends, and caretakers. Some of the decorations were borrowed from Southall's 100th birthday party, including a plaque showcasing moments from her long life.
"They feel that I'm blessed to be here, to be here this long. So they give me a party and I sit down and snack on everything they give me," Southall told 13News Now.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, out of over of 8.6 million people in Virginia, fewer than 200 were 105-years-old or older, making up less than half a percent of the population.
"Most everything that I come across in life, I enjoy," Southall said. "Everything."
