I would hope we could consider this officially Bertha Day in Cincinnati for my grandma Bertha’s 110th birthday!!! She was born 09/18/1913.

My grandmother has lived most of her life in Cincinnati, except for a few years in southeast Indiana. She was born the year after the titanic sank to immigrants, who I believed arrived here around 1909. Her parents were Peter Paul Wolfram and Katharina Gimpel Wolfram. Peter may have been born around 1891 in Hungary. Katharina may have been born around 1895 in Temes, Hungary. They immigrated here potentially from Romania and met on the ship coming to America. They married around 06/17/1911 here. Her father was a beer brewer here in Cincinnati, and her mom stayed at home to take care of her and her four brothers- Wendel, Alfred, and Carl, and Steve. Carl Wolfram worked for the Cincinnati Police Department for many years.

My grandma was born in the area of what would be Cheviot now. Back then Cincinnati was more grass hills than streets. My grandmother has talked about chasing around her brothers, and being one of the boys. She said there weren’t many girls around to play with. I don’t know what schools she went to, but I know they were Catholic. My grandma is the most religious person I’ve ever known, and faithfully went to church every week for over 100 years or as long as her health allowed. She spends her days now with her rosary, praying most of the day for her loved ones still.

She met my grandfather when she was a teenager. They both went on a hayride with other people as their dates, but ended up with each other. I recall her saying she liked my grandfather because he looked like a man, and was very strong from his hard labor job. He told her he was 18, but she found out after they were married that he was actually a year younger than her. She was 16 and he was 15, so this must have been around 1929. They went to a little church in Indiana to get married, and the preacher told them they’d have to wait until his favorite radio show was over and then he’d do it. My grandfather was Alvin Edgar Shifflet.

In 1932, my grandma had her first child, Delores. Unfortunately she passed away as an infant. In 1935, my uncle Alvin was born, though he goes by Ray. My aunt Phyllis was born in 1937, and my other aunt Barbara was born in 1941. They are all still alive. My uncle Paul, born in 1956, unfortunately isn’t with us to celebrate. And my mom, Cynthia, was born in 1958.

Bertha has 18 grandchildren (including me). She has dozens of great grandchildren, and I’ve lost track of how many ‘greats’ she is these days. (I know she is at least great great great grandmother, but maybe a couple more greats than that). She has survived and seen the entire world change and change and change again. To give you context: she was born before women had the right to vote and before the assembly line was invented. Before television existed, and while many people like to claim something is “as old as sliced bread”, my grandma IS older than sliced bread (1928). Throughout it all, she has remained steadfast and committed to her family and her faith, humble and kind. She danced with her last surviving brother at her 100th birthday, and was still on her feel until just the last few years. The unsinkable Molly Brown has nothing on her.

And people have asked, her favorite foods are doughnuts, White Castle burgers, Chic-Fil-A chicken tenders, and candy. She would say she owes her long life to god.