Submitted Photo Fern Tufte celebrates her 100th birthday at the long-term care unit of Heart of America Medical Center.

Heart of America Medical Center’s long-term care unit helped one of their residents celebrate a very special birthday recently.

Fern Tufte turned 100 Oct. 12. Staff helped her to celebrate her special day. Due to restrictions placed on visitation to combat COVID-19, family and friends did not attend her birthday party. Also because of the restrictions, Tufte answered questions with help from Block and her daughter, Bonnie Duchscher.

Tufte was born to James and Barbara Crum on a farm outside of York in Benson County in 1921. Her daughter said Tufte attended “all 12 grades. They had a grade school and a high school at that time.”

Tufte married her husband, Paul, also from the York area, June 5, 1949. The Tuftes were married 55 years, until Paul passed away in 2004. The Tuftes had three sons, Paul, Jim and Gary and one daughter, Duchscher. The Tufte family expanded over the years to include nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Tufte shared her earliest memories with Shelly Block, volunteer coordinator and activities director for the care center.

“Being a little girl, we had horses we would ride they were our pets. One I remember her name was Bessie,” Tufte told Block. “I liked going to school and I got good grades,” Tufte said of her school days.

“She liked going to school, learning and playing ball at recess,” Block said.

However, Block added, Tufte told her, “I did not like going home on the bus. It took so long.”

The “bus” Tufte referred to was actually a horse-pulled covered wagon with a stove inside to keep the children warm.

“During harvest, I helped cook in the cook car,” Tufte told Block. “Then,” Tufte added,” later during the harvest, we took food to the men out in the field in the Model T.”

Block said she wished more people, including newspaper reporters, could visit Tufte. “Fern is just a wonderful lady,” Block said. “She likes to tease staff and make us laugh. She has a great sense of humor, a very nice lady.”