By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
That there are signs of a long life on the face of Phyllis Diederich should come as no surprise, after all she just celebrated her 100th birthday. But if one were to look closely into the Bucyrus woman’s sparkling eyes and listen closely to her share her memories, it’s easy to see and understand she has and continues to enjoy life to the fullest.
“I had a wonderful, wonderful party,” Phyllis said of celebrating turning 100 on Jan. 27. “I don’t feel like I’m 100, I don’t feel any different. I just kind of keep going.”
For someone born before the First World War, Phyllis goes quite a bit. She indicated with a hint of guilt, but an overwhelming sense of glee, that she still drives.
“They don’t say anything,” she said in a whisper with a wry smile. “I’m real careful.”
But not so careful as to miss out on life’s adventures. When she was 83 she went to the rain forests of Central America and saw them from a unique perspective.
“We went with the Rotary to Panama and went zip lining through the rain forests. I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Phyllis said, as if the memory still took her breath away. “I didn’t tell them, but I didn’t know what I was doing. But I made it.”
Phyllis has made it through life wherever she has been and whatever she has done with a sense of purpose and an awareness of others. Whether it was bringing her husband Carl back to their home from a nursing care facility to take care of him the rest of his life or caring for elderly parents and in-laws in her own home, she has gone out of the way to help others.
That, she said, has been a key to her longevity.
“I don’t know, I’ve just kept busy,” Phyllis said about the secret to her long life. “I’ve always got something on my mind I want to do. I enjoy people. I enjoyed helping.”
Phyllis has been a longtime volunteer at Fairhaven in Upper Sandusky and said she has always had a lot of hobbies including being active in Rotary with Carl. She has also helped with the Meals on Wheels program, and loved the opportunity to travel.
Her life began on the Ackerman family farm in northern Crawford County where she had a brother and two sisters. She graduated in 1934 from New Washington High School where she played both basketball and softball for the NeWaHi Indians.
“When I played it was sure different,” Phyllis said of her athletic career. “We were called the Bloomer Girls. We always played before the boys. I always had to guard the other team’s tallest player. I didn’t get to shoot much.”
After graduating during the Great Depression, Phyllis went to Columbus to business school for a short time. She took a job at a shoe store in the capital city, but longed for home and talked the shoe company into letting her transfer to its store back in Bucyrus, the Miller-Jones store.
It was then she met Carl Diederich, her future husband.
“I met him roller skating up above Clady’s,” Phyllis recalled.
A couple of years later they managed to get married in spite of World War II.
“They were starting to draft for the war. He (Carl) said he was never lucky in a drawing and he was the second one,” Phyllis said.
With wedding plans in the works, Carl had to leave in February before the couple could say their “I do’s.” He managed to get a brief furlough in May that gave them that opportunity.
“We were married May 20,” Phyllis said. “The day after we were married he had to hitchhike back to Harrisburg (Pennsylvania).”
Almost immediately upon his return, Carl was shipped to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. It was June before he got a furlough again. Phyllis made the most of her husband’s five-day pass by taking a train to Camp Shelby.
“It was a milk train with one passenger car and it stopped in every little town along the way,” Phyllis said. “That’s the last of I saw of him. He shipped out to the East Coast and then to San Francisco to go to the Philippines.
“For four years he was overseas. I didn’t see him for four years until he got out in October.”
Although the newlyweds wrote daily, Phyllis said her letters from Carl were often filled with holes where Army sensors cut out portions they thought might give away important information should the mail be intercepted by the enemy.
When Carl did return stateside, he was sent to Indianapolis to muster out. Phyllis had dreamed of seeing him for the first time as he got off the train, but Carl wasn’t willing to wait.
“When he got to Columbus he was so anxious to get home he hitchhiked,” Phyllis said, still laughing at her husband’s desire to come home. “I didn’t get to see him get off the train. He came to the front door.”
Phyllis has never moved from Bucyrus and remains independent and self-sufficient. She’s still a sports fan, especially rooting for the Indians and Ohio State.
The Diederichs had one daughter, Mary Alice Graham, who lives in Lancaster. There are two grandchildren for Phyllis now and two great-grandchildren for her to enjoy.
Phyllis says simply, “I had a really good life.”
And more she’s looking forward to.