The 100 Year Woman

 Mary Louise (Reinhart) Davis

She was born in Alvada, OH, on March 17, 1924, the fifth of eleven children. She married her husband, Charles Davis on April 19, 1945, and they were married for 68 years.

Mary loved her family, going to garage sales, playing cards, going anywhere with her loved ones, and attending parties. She never wanted to miss any school activities or events of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a faithful member of Gesu Catholic church for 73 years.

On November 23, 2024, Mary passed away at the age of 100.

You're probably wondering who this woman is and why she's in my post about the book, "Essentials of Social Media Marketing." Mary Davis is my great-grandma. Her being my grandma doesn't mean much to you, but I want you to think about how much the world has changed over those 100 years. There were no smartphones or internet, computers were people who operated calculating machines, students used slate tablets, and radio broadcasts were just becoming popular. According to the book, "Today, over 66% of the world's population uses the internet, with more than 5 billion people online." In the 1920s, the internet wasn't even a thought yet. It's crazy to think about how much she's seen and how much she's lived through during her lifespan.

I feel like a lot of times, when we think of the older generations, we assume that they don't use newer technology, but surprisingly, that wasn't the case with my grandma. Although my great-grandma lived most of her life without advanced technology, she was still somewhat up to date-with the changing times. She had her own cell phone that she pretty consistently answered calls on, she watched Netflix here and there, and she even had a Facebook account. All I'm trying to say is that technology still surprises me at times, and I was born into it. I can only imagine living 70% of my life with almost no technology to having robots begging to do humans' work. The book says that it took 64 years for 50 million people to adopt airplanes but only 19 days for Pokemon Go. A lot of people can say that they lived through the rise of Pokemon Go, along with a vast array of other mobile/video games, but not many can say that they lived through the adoption of airplanes, my grandma could. She basically lived in two different timelines. One where it took decades for people to create and accept these technological advances, and one where a short video can be made about a new product, and within 24 hours, it's trending. As much as I love the cutting-edge technology I get to witness daily, sometimes I feel like the world is moving too fast, like every day is a race to discover the next big thing. Sometimes, I wish I could see what the world was like when my great-grandma was growing up. An era where when people had nothing to do; they read a book or went for a walk, not instantly grab the nearest piece of technology.