Lena Boecker celebrates 100 surprising years

She weighed just 3 pounds when she came into this world on May 23, 1915, so it's no wonder Magdalena "Lena" Boecker is somewhat surprised she's made to her 100th birthday.

"I'm just amazed," she said. "I never thought in 100 years I'd be 100 years old."

But if you talk to Lena's family, they are certain her longevity has to do with how well she eats, her sharp wit and her strong faith. Lena still lives in her same home (though it's being renovated right now so she's staying at the Staybridge Suites), pays her own bills, reads the newspaper, cooks most of her meals and can recall vivid details of her life.

In fact, she wrote up her own biography on scraps of paper.

"It's really quite a life for just a plain old person," she said.

It's a life that started in Butte when her mother was running to catch the streetcar to go to church. Her mother never missed church, she said. She came home when she started getting pains in her stomach. Her mom turned around, went home and gave birth to Lena with the help of a midwife. She was born a month early, thus the small size, and was wrapped in a blanket and set on the oven for an incubator.

At 3 months old, she won first place in a baby beauty contest in her age group. Within a few years, her family had moved to this area and she spent time living between Great Falls and Lewistown as her dad worked on the Milwaukee Railroad. She can remember attending the Ursuline Academy when she was 6 and 7 years old and loved learning from the nuns.

In 1934, she graduated from Fergus High School in Lewistown and worked at the candy counter at Woolworths. She was a good salesperson, according to her boss.

"I drew the boys in," she said. "I got a couple of proposals."

But the only proposal that mattered was the one from her high school sweetheart, Raphael "Ray" Boecker. They lived in an apartment that cost $35 per month while Ray worked. Then in 1938, their only child, daughter Marilyn Rae (Boecker) Cady, was born. It was hard finding work in Great Falls during the Great Depression. They moved to Wenatchee so Ray could work for an orchard.

They came back to Great Falls two years later and lived in her in-laws' basement for a couple of weeks, then moved in with her parents after that wasn't working out. Ray went to work at the Parkdale housing complex as a maintenance manager for years before the Boeckers were finally able to purchase their first home thanks to a $600 loan from her dad to make the down payment.

Lena has lived in that same home for the last 71 years. While Ray was at work, Lena was raising their daughter and busily involved in their church, Holy Family Parish Catholic Church. She was also known to kids in their neighborhood as the cookie lady. All the kids knew to come to their backdoor to get a snack.

Marilyn got married in 1957 and Lena and Ray traveled to visit her and her children in Florida, Germany, then Texas.

Lindy Alberts said she remembered when her grandparents would show up at their house in Texas. Lena remembers her youngest grandchild waiting for them when they got to the house. When she was 11, Lindy got to come live with her grandparents for the summer in Montana. She now lives with her grandmother and mother again, and is the primary caregiver for both. She has fond memories of her years spent with her grandmother both as a child and now an adult.

"If you're not laughing a lot, you're not spending enough time with your grandmother," Alberts said.

When not working, baking and raising children, Lena and Ray liked to go camping and hiking in the mountains outside of Great Falls. She just remembers going down these long dirt roads together.

"Sometimes I wondered, 'Oh God, how are we going to get out of here?'" Lena said.

Ray died in 1990 in a tragic accident. He was out riding his bicycle and was hit by a car and killed. Even after her husband's death, Lena stayed active in her church and donated her time to organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Salvation Army and more. She participates in First Friday Mass every month and still recites a number of prayers and songs that have been important to her over the last 100 years.

"I talk to God a lot and sometimes I scold him for not listening," she said.

There are some things she wishes God would take care of, but for the most part, her prayers are ones of gratitude. She's been having trouble walking lately and is primarily confined to a wheelchair these days to move around. But she doesn't require any medications right now, has good sight and can hear pretty well, too.

Perhaps she'll live to be 104 like her mother.

"I ask God for good health, and while I'm asking, if he'll fix my left foot," Lena said.