Two days a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., JoCleta Wilson is on the clock. She’s no average worker, however. Born Oct. 4, 1924, in Louisville, Kentucky, the 100-year-old former dancer and business owner now spends her mornings working at Home Depot.
Retirement just never quite stuck.
“I retired three different times — 10 years each time in retirement, and it is not what it’s cracked up to be. I got so tired of myself,” Wilson told Today.com. “I had to get out of the house and come back to work and see what was going on in society. … I have a lot of fun.”
Wilson started working at Home Depot in 2022, but she spent her earlier years traveling the world as a dancer for June Taylor and operating her own dance academy. Since then, she’s beaten cancer three times, faced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and received a pacemaker. None of that keeps her from dancing today.
“I have the radio everywhere,” she said, explaining that she believes movement is important to living a long life. “Thank goodness for Alexa. I tell her to play something that’s really good to jump to, and I have at it. I let go and move and do what I want to do and it feels good. That’s my exercise.”
Another longevity tip? Watch what you eat.
“I eat well,” the company’s oldest employee said. “I don’t eat out a lot. I do my own cooking and enjoy it.”
Wilson said she doesn’t eat bacon, cheese or white flour, focusing instead on chicken, fish and steak.
Wilson admitted it’s OK to indulge, but that it’s important to not overdo it.
“I always have a chocolate cake in my freezer,” she said. “I take a slice but maybe once a week.”
Wilson, who wrote her own cookbook, eats ice cream, but only the occasional tablespoon. She eats candy, but small portions can last her months.
If that’s too disciplined, Wilson had one last piece of advice: “I always say, don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry. Don’t let everything make you angry. Anger takes a lot of muscle and a lot of good out of your life. It’s so much easier to think positive than to think negative. It takes a lot less effort. And that’s what I try to do.”
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