A good life

POST FALLS — Today, Marion Heffner is turning 100.

How does she feel about it?

“It makes me know why I hurt so much,” she said, laughing.

Heffner isn’t one who lets much get in her way or even slow her down. She points to a protective boot around her right foot.

“Until this happened, I still walked about a mile a day,” she said while sitting at The Bridge at Post Falls Garden Plaza, where she has lived for about three years.

Three weeks ago, her knee gave out and she collapsed on her foot, breaking a bone in her little toe. For a stretch, she was in a wheelchair, but recovered soon enough to begin using a walker.

“I’m feeling better,” Heffner said.

Hers has been what anyone would call a full life. A wife, a mom, a teacher, an artist, a traveler, and protector of leatherback turtles, too.

“I’ve done just about everything you can think of,” she said, smiling.

Born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands, Heffner was there when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

She recalled that Sunday morning, hearing explosions but not really thinking anything about it because the military was always practicing shooting at targets and the sound of guns was often in the background.

“But then the announcement came on the radio that we were under attack by a foreign country and please stay in your rooms in your house until we can get further information,” Heffner said.

She ran outside to see what was going on.

“I did see a Japanese plane fly right over our house with the two red suns on the wings,” Heffner said. “It had apparently dropped its bombs and was on its way back to the ship.”

She would live on Oahu the duration of the war, go on to marry Robert Heffner and they would have two children, a son and a daughter. Robert was an engineer with expertise in earth compaction, Marion said.

They lived in Turkey for a time when Robert worked on a naval base under construction.

“Because we had to go where the projects were, we moved a lot,” she said, adding she also spent a lot of time as a single mom due to her husband’s work.

They were married about 50 years before Robert passed away.

Marion taught disabled children for nearly 20 years, and enjoyed photography and crafts, including basket weaving, wood carving and jewelry making.

She particularly loved to travel.

“Forty countries later, here I am,” she said proudly.

She recounted with joy a visit to Costa Rica with a conservation company to protect the eggs of leatherback turtles. Fully grown, the turtles can weigh around 1,000 pounds.

One turtle, as she waited for it to deliver its precious eggs, drenched her with sand with its mighty flippers.

“I was so mad at that turtle, it took me days to get the sand out of my hair,” Heffner said, laughing.

She visited the Arctic and wanted badly to get to the South Pole.

“But I never made that trip,” she said, shaking her head.

So, what was her favorite country?

“I don’t really have a favorite because each country is different; the people are different. You always take back something with you from that visit,” she said.

Heffner is the last of six children in her family that included four brothers and a sister.

"They're all gone," she said.

She displays a sharp mind and reads about 50 books a year. She was walking a mile day before injuring her foot. She traces her physical prowess and mental clarity to her childhood, when she spent time on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii Island and Kauai.

“I started my life surfing,” she said.

Heffner camped and hiked often. And she always had a dog, covering a few miles a day.

“Now, I’m down to zero dogs,” she said.

As for being a centenarian, Heffner credits good company on her journey.

“You don’t do it yourself. You’re helped along the way, or hindered with,” she said. “Lots of people. I guess I’ve had a good life.”

Asked about lessons learned in 100 years on Earth and could she offer advice to those still breathing, Heffner pauses and collects her thoughts.

She glances around the room, perhaps reaching deep down to pull up some wisdom.

Then, she offers this:

“I’d tell them I don’t know a thing.”

But she knows that isn’t enough, so she continues.

“I would say generally to be your own person. Forget following the crowd, whatever, to be true to yourself. And that’s kind of hard to do."

She was true to her own person, right?

Heffner seems doubtful.

“I guess I did, to some extent,” she said.

What’s left to do?

She smiles and laughs again. There is one thing.

“I would like to get out of some of these restrictions so I could do something.”