MIDDLEBORO — For those concerned about the inevitable wrinkles that come with age, Ruth Calhoun has a piece of advice: “Let them be.”

Calhoun celebrated her 101st birthday on Friday, Sept. 13 at Nemasket Healthcare Center in Middleboro, where she currently lives.

Born in Rockland, Calhoun has lived in Middleboro for the last several decades. 

Growing up during the Great Depression as one of eight children, Calhoun has faced her fair share of hard times. But what’s gotten her through life’s obstacles has been an unwavering sense of faith, she said. 

Born a baptist, Calhoun converted to Catholicism later in life. From a young age, she said, “the important person in my life became Jesus. It’s always been Jesus.” 

“If the stars fell out of the sky, I’d say help me Jesus,” Calhoun noted.  

She recalled without hesitation that the happiest memories of her childhood were the summers she spent in Scituate with her aunt Carrie and Uncle Happy.

Her uncle earned that nickname because “he was [happy] all the time,” she said. 

“They loved me to pieces,” said Calhoun, her eyes twinkling as she thought back to events that happened over ninety years ago. 

She also looked fondly back on all the times she returned from the library with a stack of books the length of her arm for her and her father to share. Calhoun earned a teaching degree at Bridgewater State University. 

But the happiest time of her life came after she married “the most wonderful man,” who reminded her of her Uncle Happy, she recalled. Though her husband Charlie was “short” and “chubby,” she said, laughing “he looked at me like I was the princess of Shangri-La.” 

Being with Charlie “was everything,” said Calhoun, who has two sons, Charles and Joe Lemieux.