Medina resident reflects on her life after turning 100 years old

MEDINA — Medina resident Judy Collens turned 100 years old on July 21. She believes people don't grow old. Instead, they become old by not growing. Collens was born in Denver in 1925. Her family moved to Ohio in 1928 because her father had a business opportunity. "I was from the upper class, and I thought the upper class lifestyle was just so stupid and ridiculous in thinking they're better than other people," she said. "I didn't want any part of it, but my parents sort of accepted that in me. It's always the way I've been." As a child, Collens attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, where she was the captain of her field hockey team and was elected president of her senior class. "I was always a doer," she said. "I never sat down and read a book until I was probably in college. I was too busy doing things. I never missed an opportunity that I got, and they came all the time." Her husband, Jonathan "Jock" Collens, was born in 1915 and died in 2016 at 101 years old. Just before World War II, he graduated from law school and got a job with a New York City law firm. He then spent four years of his life at war. "(He was) shot on Easter Sunday 1945 by a Nazi as they were cleaning out the town," she said. "I asked him what he did when he got shot, and he said 'I sat down.' That's the kind of answer he had for everything, no matter what." When he came home from the war, his mother told him he had to get married. Collens said she was not interested in him. "He was rich," she said. "He was everything that I didn't approve of, but when he started talking about his summers on his grandfather's farm, that's what got me to him." Collens said her dream was always to live on a farm and have six children. He made a promise to her that he would buy her a farm if she would marry him, and they got married in November 1948. "He was a fascinating person," she said. "There was nothing he couldn't do." They had five children in a span of eight years. On the Fourth of July, 1960, she took her children to the movies, and he told her they should have had a picnic instead. "I had the nerve to open my mouth and say, 'If you'd bought me that farm that you promised me 12 years ago, that's exactly where we would be," Collens said. "Before the month was over, we had an 100-acre farm that had been with a family for 150 years, and the last person just died. We had the farm for 30 years." The Collens family lived in Cleveland Heights but spent summers and weekends on the dairy farm in Mesopotamia, Ohio. Her daughter Emilie Illson said at the farm, her family rode ponies, played boot hockey and sold vegetables they grew in the garden out of a roadside stand. Collens made growing up fun, Illson said. For instance, the family would have a "anything you want to do day" where they did not have to make their bed or an "anything you want to eat day" where the kids could eat cookie dough all day if they felt like it. "Twice a year, we had bad manners day," she said. "On the first bad manners day, in the middle of dinner, my father put his feet up on the dining room table and tossed a roll across the room to my brother. Bad manners day was so much fun with elbows on the table, and you could say shut up and stupid. We loved it because, normally, we were very well-mannered." Illson described her mom as someone who loves watching baseball, laughing and having fun. "My mom is an adventurer," she said. "She's a risk taker who loves to live life to the fullest." Collens moved to Medina in 1990. Since her arrival, she has participated in Medina County organizations like Friends of the Cemetery and the Medina County Show Biz Company, in which she acted in Shakespeare on the Square. "(Acting) came naturally to me," she said. "It was easy to make friends by doing something like that. That was wonderful. I did it for years." At 100 years old, Collens is still very independent. She regularly goes to the gym and rides her bike every day, sometimes twice a day. "I bought the bike because I decided I shouldn't be driving anymore." she said. "I've had it for 15 years, and I ride every day, winter or summer." Collens said she is lucky to be where she is at both physically and mentally. "I've had a wonderful life, and I am amazed," she said. "My children have been the light of my life." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.