101-year-old woman from Maine is still lobstering and has no plans of retiring
Nobody can ever tell you that you’re too old for something.
Virginia Oliver, a 101-year-old resident of Claredon Street in Rockland, Maine has no plans of stopping what she’s been doing for decades – lobstering. She is, without a doubt, the oldest lobster catcher in Maine and who knows, maybe in the entire world too.
Her friends call her “Ginny” and she was born in June 1920 in the same street where she currently lives. Her parents are Julia Buttomer and Alvin Rackliff, her father in particular, was also a lobster catcher and perhaps, she got her lobstering skills from him.
When she was just 8 years old, Ginny would accompany her father and older brother whenever they set sail to catch lobster. Lobstering was technically their main source of living before and because of it, she managed to raise four children.
Now, she’s being accompanied by her 78-year-old son on her hobby, and together, they are a formidable force in terms of lobster catching.
Ginny’s son, Max, would spend the night at her house so they could wake up early in the morning. She works on Penobscot Bay and from the months of May to November, she’d lobster 200 pots in the water and she does it three times a week.
Considering her age, there were times when she gets unstable on her feet. However, with her decades of experience, stumbling wasn’t an issue because she considers a rocking boat her home.
Ginny and Max make a great tandem, the latter would haul the pots, and the former bands the lobsters. The centenarian is right-handed but she needs to use her left hand while working because she accidentally broke her right wrist just a few years back.
Because of her lobstering expertise, people started calling Ginny the “Lobster Lady.”
But just a couple of years back, Wayne Gray, a family friend of theirs, revealed that Ginny’s finger got snipped by a crab. Because of the severity of her injury, it had to be stitched, but despite what happened, the now 101-year-old lobsterer had never thought of stopping what she’s been doing for decades.
“I’ve done it all my life, so I might as well keep doing it,” she said.
Aside from her, her late husband, and all of Ginny’s kids also lobster.
“You just have to keep going otherwise you would be in a wheelchair or something,” she said.
But aside from lobstering, she’s also a good homemaker.
“I usually bake beans on Saturday and (my kids) come for supper,” says Virginia, who is famous for the doughnuts, cakes, and brownies she bakes.
Actually, when she was asked about her plans to retire from lobstering, the “Lobster Lady” jokingly said, “When I die.”
“Everybody gonna die sometime,” Ginny added. “You not gonna live forever, so why let it bother you?”
In fact, in a YouTube video posted by NEWS CENTER Maine, someone who knows their family pretty well shared how good Ginny and her family were to them.
“I KNOW THIS WOMAN IN REAL LIFE! Really surreal seeing her here. My Grandmother Gretchen lived across the street from Ginny in Rockland in the last parts of her life and they were good friends. Ginny and her family are very kind people who were incredibly nice and supportive to my family when my Grandmother was in hospice and later passed away in 2009. They helped us get through a very rough time in our lives.”
Don’t forget to watch the video below.
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