Lucy Cristello just had her best birthday ever.

I never dreamed Id be 99, said Cristello, from a drawing room at Aspen Ridge Retirement Community on the east side of Bend. You should have seen my birthday. It was the most wonderful birthday I ever had.

There were slices of cake and well-wishers and smiles all around. And the celebration just clicked.

This was something special, said the woman friends call Little Lucy, flashing a grin.

Lucy Cristello was not easy to interview. At her age, she answers what she wants, when she wants, and is not afraid to tell you just how ill-conceived that last question was. In so many words.

How does it feel to be 99?

How does it feel to be how old you are? she replied in a slight Southern drawl. Ive never been 99 before. I dont know how Im supposed to feel.

That said, she acknowledged pushing 100 is not for wimps.

The worst part is I cant hear good and I cant see good, she said. Hearing aids are a help most of the time, but sometimes I get more background noise. Like in the dining room, you get a lot of noise that isnt worth listening to.

But Cristello remains consistently upbeat.

Despite the things shes lost, she gives so much to everyone else, said Jeannie Souza, Cristellos friend and the activities director at Aspen Ridge. She makes everyone else laugh. Shes just so cute. Her attitude is so positive. She gets up every day and doesnt give up.

Born in Georgia, Cristello remembers a lot of hard work.

We lived on the farm. All you did was go to church and go to school. Work, work, work … I know when I was a youngster going to school, they used to have geography, she said. Geography was so interesting with all the trees and the mountains that you have here (in Oregon). I never dreamed Id get to see them one day. I dont believe theres ever been more than one mountain in Georgia.

As a young woman, Cristello lived in the Washington, D.C., area, where she worked as a waitress and as a housekeeper.

I found that you could make more money at domestic work than you could in the government, she said.

Or waitressing.

I soon found out I wasnt a decent waitress, she said. I didnt have the gab, I guess. … Everything was so cheap then. You had to depend on the tips. Some days you didnt even get enough tips to pay your car fare.

While Cristello didnt have much contact with the politicians of the day, she does remember one encounter.

I saw Eleanor Roosevelt several times, she said, grinning again. We had to stand back and wait for her to get an elevator. She wasnt as bad looking as her photos were. To me, she was just an ordinary person.