Riverview Mayor Andrew Swift (right) wishes Isabel Metty (fourth from left at front table) a happy 101st birthday Feb. 19 at Atria Kinghaven assisted living facility, along with front table guest Chris Mills (left), her daughter, Susan Metty Collier, daughter-in-law Teresa Metty, granddaughter Tiffany Tyndall, son Jim Metty, son Dave Metty and friend Rochelle Vergari.
Centenarian Isabel Metty celebrates her 101st birthday Feb. 19 at Atria Kinghaven assisted living facility in Riverview.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – Isabel Metty celebrated her 101st birthday Feb. 19 at Atria Kinghaven assisted living facility surrounded by family, friends and well-wishers, including Mayor Andrew Swift, who provided her with a proclamation.
She has eight children, 13 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great grandchildren, which includes one who is due to be born any day.
Metty, who was born Feb. 19, 1925, in Grand Rapids, spent the early part of her life in an orphanage, where she was adopted at age 7 and went to live on a farm in Petoskey.
When she was 80, her biological family found her, and she discovered that she had six biological siblings in addition to her six siblings from her adoptive family. She was able to meet a biological sister and two biological brothers. She has since met numerous biological nieces and nephews.
During World War II, she worked in a stamping plant Downriver.
Her adoptive family moved from Petoskey to Detroit, where she met and fell in love with the boy next door, Harold Metty, whom she married in 1948. They were married for 41 years until his passing in 1989.
They raised their five sons and three daughters first in Southgate and later in Flat Rock, where all eight of their children graduated from high school.
Metty was a talented cook and seamstress.
“She makes a meat pie that’s to die for,” her daughter, Sue Metty Collier, 76, of Carleton said. “She makes it from leftover roast beef and pork, and it’s her specialty.”
Metty also liked square dancing and bowling, and her family enjoyed camping in Tennessee and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Metty has been at Atria Kinghaven for four years, where she has made many friends and enjoys joining residents for Bingo in the great room.
“We are so grateful that she’s this healthy at 101, and we are praying that she doesn’t ever have to go into a nursing home,” Collier said.
Metty said she is an optimistic person who is slow to anger, and said hard work is the secret to a long life.
“I guess God’s not ready for me yet,” she said with a smile.
Metty’s advice for others?
“Live every day of your life the way you’d like other people to treat you, day after day,” she said.
Riverview Mayor Andrew Swift (right) wishes centenarian Isabel Metty a happy 101st birthday Feb. 19 at Atria Kinghaven assisted living facility.