Alma’s Century

Alma Trevethick

Last month, friends, family members and friends of the Swarthmore United Methodist Church celebrated one of its most faithful and venerable parishioners, Alma Trevethick, on the occasion of her one hundredth birthday.

A live-minded and sprightly woman, Alma has lived almost her entire life in Swarthmore, moving here in 1923 when she was four, and moving out after living in Swarthmore for 75-plus years. She moved to Ridley Park for a number of years before moving to her current abode in a nursing home 2½ years ago. She has seen almost the entire history of the town and recalls a lot of it.

Her friend Kathy Colbert says, “She has had a really good life.” When Alma goes out for rides, Kathy always brings her back through Swarthmore to see her house and ride all through the town for her to speak of her many years in Swarthmore. It brings back many fond memories and smiles. Alma is very proud to have lived in Swarthmore and to be a member of the Swarthmore United Methodist Church.

In tributes to Alma presented at the church and celebrating her 95th and hundredth birthdays, her friends recalled her devotion to the church among Alma’s many good qualities. A member of the Swarthmore High School class of 1937, she had also come through elementary and junior high in Swarthmore. She went to Peirce Business College in Philadelphia, then took a job in 1940 with the accounting department of Pennsylvania Railroad. She stayed there for 40 years.

Her commitment to work precluded pairing off, and she said she was “having too much fun to think about marriage.” She dedicated much of her time to sports — especially golf, bowling, walking three miles daily — and travel. Alma has visited all 50 of the United States, Europe, Mexico, and the Panama Canal Zone. She took up art later in life and was a painter until having a stroke in 2000.

Alma’s move to a nursing home at age 98 has brought her into the lives of many new friends and rewarded her positive attitude and generous spirit with a whole new set of admirers.

We wish Alma continued health and boundless happiness as she embarks on her second century.