Wanda Stockwell’s naturally pessimistic nature fades when she gazes back instead of forward.

Perched on a favorite chair in her apartment on Monday, Stockwell is ready for her 103rd birthday party to get underway with 14 of her family members.

The sharp-minded, gracious woman with a kind smile never thought she’d live so long. She’s outlasted all her siblings and last November laid a daughter to rest, a loss that still hurts.

“I can’t understand it. Most people don’t live this long. Why have I?”

Stockwell suspects that being raised on a dairy farm in Fort Lupton, northeast of Denver, has something to do with her longevity.

“We had a big hill we could slide down in the winter, a pond we could ice skate on and a lake where we could swim,” she said. “And we had a mother who always had hot chocolate waiting for us.”

Stockwell’s main childhood job was to keep the cows and calves out of the corn fields.

“They loved corn — they’d just destroy a corn field,” she said.

Other chores included feeding the chickens, gathering eggs, picking beans, cleaning and cooking.

“We had some responsibilities that helped us to become self-reliant,” she said.

She’s maintained a healthy lifestyle, usually eating three balanced meals a day, never smoking and enjoying a margarita but not being a big drinker.

Stockwell dearly loved her husband, Dick Stockwell, whom she knew in childhood and married in 1942. Two years later, Dick headed off to fight in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He also did two tours in Germany with his growing family that would produce four children. Dick retired from Fort Carson in 1966 and signed up for civil service.

“He said he’d work for civil service for 10 years and no longer,” Stockwell said. “Bless his heart, he’d worked there for 11 years and didn’t realize it. When he did, he put in his retirement papers right away.”

The couple moved to Colorado Springs in 1962 and bought land off Templeton Gap, near where Stockwell lives today in an independent living complex. They added a swimming pool at their house and taught their children and grandchildren to swim.

The couple liked to travel after Dick retired. He died nearly 20 years ago at age 85.

Wanda Stockwell’s tenacity could be another reason for her title of centenarian, said her youngest daughter, Gretchen.

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“They lived through hard times, and she’s always determined to keep going, to keep learning. She does not know how to give up,” Gretchen said. “She also has had the ability to let things go. She’s an amazing person whom I admire.”

Stockwell thinks she might have gotten some of her characteristics from her grandmother, who owned a Ford Model T. Few women drove in the early days of the automobile, but Stockwell’s grandmother would pick up her grandchildren on Sunday mornings to take them to church.

“Our mother worried whether we’d make it there OK,” Stockwell said, adding that she inherited her mother’s worry-wart tendencies.

But what sticks out most about the lengthy tickertape of memories that run through her mind is that she’s had a good life. A blessed one.

After leaving her 12-year job as manager of the Colorado College Bookstore, Stockwell took up jogging, and being a people person, she started a coffee klatch.

When jogging was no longer possible, Stockwell said she walked three miles every day to stay in shape.

She continues to be a diehard Denver Broncos fan and hasn’t let go of her tradition of reading the newspaper daily for 63 years. 

These days, crippling arthritis and a painfully bad hip that doctors said they won’t replace because of her age have limited her mobility, though.

Stockwell’s infirmities also led her to seek pain management through Abode Hospice of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

Staff members threw her a surprise early birthday party last Friday with her favorites — prime rib, peach cobbler and margaritas.

Employees like how sweet she is, said Christal Ransom York, agency spokesperson.

“Wanda has always been so thoughtful towards our whole team and expresses an interest in our lives, despite us coming in to care for and support her,” she said. “She is just a light and a joy to everyone and deserved to have an extra special birthday.”

And that’s enough for Stockwell to remain optimistic as she reminisces.

“This is the way it is,” she says of her body wearing out. “So, I’ll just keep taking it one day at a time.”

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