Helen Bratt says one of the few drawbacks of being 100 is that she’s a bit less mobile than she used to be. She stopped driving at age 97 (“No one had to talk me into it, I knew it was time.”) and doesn’t get around as much as she used to. So Seal Beach’s newest centenarian has turned to the Internet to bring the world to her.
“I’m just learning about Facebook,” said Bratt, who looks forward to staying in touch with her family and friends across the country. “I plan on using it more, once I get the hang of it.”
Bratt was born on Sept. 1, 1914, in Little Utica, NY, in farm country near Lake Ontario, and traces her roots back to 1632, when Dutch settlers were just arriving on the East Coast.
She studied nursing at Syracuse University, “despite having to take three years of Latin,” she said. With a fellow nurse, she moved to New York City and worked there until 1944, returning upstate to continue her career at area hospitals. It was there she met her future husband, Lysle, as World War II was coming to an end. Gasoline was still being rationed. She had a car, and Lysle, a sailor, had gas coupons; their romance flourished.
Lysle’s Navy career allowed the family to visit all 50 states and much of the world. Often, she and their daughter, Melody, would get to a city before her husband, and they would have their home settled before he arrived for duty.
The couple moved to Southern California for good in 1963, and Bratt has lived in Leisure World for 27 years.
She enjoys many of the clubs and activities in the community, the arts and golf. She’s an accomplished painter, and once shot a hole-in-one on the Leisure World course.
Reflecting on major inventions and milestones in her life, Bratt lists things we today take for granted: electricity, cars, radio, the microwave oven. She added that World War II created opportunities for women, and she’s glad she made the most of them. She still does. Sitting at her computer, Bratt said, “I never get bored. You can always learn something new, and do something new.”
