By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer
PLATTSBURGH — A second wave of well-wishers, Catholic Daughters from the Church of the Assumption in Redford, sang "Happy Birthday" one more time to celebrate Lorena Weldon's 100th birthday bash at Meadowbrook Healthcare.
Asked by a celebrant what was the key to living a century, Lorena said, "I have no secret. I try to be good to everybody."
She was born Lorena Bressette on Sept. 3, 1910, the daughter of Philmore and Ellen (Brein) Bressette.
Philmore was a master carpenter at the Ampersand Hotel in Saranac Lake, where Lorena was born.
When the Bressettes relocated to Saranac, Philmore farmed and drove an express wagon — a flatbed pulled by horses — from the train depot to deliver vendor items to small stores.
"It was like the UPS of his day," said Warren Bressette, Lorena's sole living relative and nephew. When he was a child, Lorena was his baby-sitter; now he visits her every Sunday.
Her parents also opened the Centennial House in Saranac to boarders, and Lorena's great-grandfather January Bressette operated it as a hotel in the 19th century.
Lorena's siblings, all deceased, were Beatrice Watson, Margerite Bressette and Bernard Bressette. She also had three brothers and one sister from her father's first marriage to Julie Marshall Bressette. Julie died in childbirth. Her eldest sibling, Wilfred Bressette, died in World War I overseas and is buried in the Church of the Assumption graveyard, as are all of her relatives.
She met her husband, Lawrence Weldon, in Plattsburgh, and they married in 1939. A Chazy native, he was a farmer, owned a cattle business and worked for the county plowing and surfacing roads.
wouldn't change a thing
Lorena retired from Saranac Central School as cafeteria manager. Though she never had any children of her own, she loved kids and often purchased ice cream for her favorites.
When she sold her ancestral home — now senior apartments — to the town, she became the first resident at Saranac Valley Housing. She remained there until 2006 when she relocated to Meadowbrook Healthcare in Plattsburgh.
There, Lorena spends many hours lost in print. An avid reader, she thumbs tons of books. Her breakfast is always followed by a page-by-page perusal of the Press-Republican.
Every day she looks forward with a positive attitude. Asked what inspires her, she said: "Not much of anything. I'm very content and happy. Everyone has been so good to me."
In a century of living, there is not one thing she would change. She has no secret for staying married, but she offers: "We were very happy and content together."
Joyce Ryan, Lorena's dearest friend, was among the well-wishers eating Lorena's sugar-free white cake frosted with white-and-purple icing.
"She was my neighbor forever in Saranac," said Joyce, who was a local teacher. "We still speak on the phone almost nightly. She's very firm with what she believes in. She's a good role model. She's a very strong Christian, and she lives by that code. She has no enemies, in 100 years. She always found the good in everybody."
"I hear about how many books she reads a week," said Francine Jesmer, who baked the cake for Lorena. "I hear about how much Warren loses to her playing cards. They play rummy."
The Rev. Philip Allen, formerly assigned to the Church of the Assumption, blessed the occasion.
"She's the oldest member of our parish," Allen said. "She's always interested in what is going on at church."
E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
