Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series featuring Albert Lea’s centenarians. The series focuses on their memories of the past and what they’ve done to live longer, healthier lives.

Every morning when 100-year-old Nellie Johnson gets out of bed, she does so with a purpose.

In fact, it’s that purpose, she said, that’s been more important to her than anything else in her entire life.

Raised as a strong Christian, she tries to share as much about Jesus Christ as she can.

“To me, Jesus is really true,” she said.

Her faith has transcended more than a century in time.

Johnson, who moved to St. John’s Lutheran Home almost three years ago, said her whole life has revolved around Christ and her children.

Those priorities have had a ripple effect into her life’s other decisions.

Born on Sept. 29, 1908, on a farm in Worth County, Iowa, Johnson was one of 10 children born of Norwegian heritage. Around the time she was born, she said, people would get married and have big families. When she was a child, her neighbors had 15 children.

She recalled her mother having breakfast at 7:30 a.m. sharp each morning, and if you weren’t there, you didn’t get any, she said.

“We lived by rules, but my parents were wonderful people,” Johnson said. “We had such a good life. My folks were such good people.”

She said the family ate healthy and “didn’t get any junk.”

Rain, shine or blizzard the family went to church every week at First Lutheran Church in Silver Lake. On Sundays they went by horse and buggy, but if they went to see the minister, they’d walk three miles to get there, she said.

She and her siblings all attended Waldorf High School.

Upon graduation, on June 2, 1927, at the age of 18, she married L.W. Hahn, a man from North Dakota. He was a teacher and came down to work for the civil service in Northwood, Iowa.

Johnson said Hahn went from farm to farm and tested milk to see which cow was making the best money for families. She and Hahn met when he’d come around to her family’s farm.

Together, the couple had six children.

“I was so happy with the babies,” she said. “I just loved my babies.”

It turned out, however, that Hahn didn’t have a love for children, she said, and after at least 20 years of marriage, she ended up leaving him.

She married another man by the name of Bill Lang; then, at the age of 58, she married a third time to a man named Leo Johnson, who she met at an old-time dance.

“He was so good, he treated me like a queen,” she said.

He passed away in 1972, and she’s been a widow ever since.

Before going to St. John’s, Johnson lived at Senior Court. Prior to that, she lived in houses on Fountain Street and Oak Lane.

Now at St. John’s, Johnson keeps busy with the facility’s activities, including Sunday services, daily exercise and daily devotions.

“I like to go to those things,” she said. “Keeps me alive.”

She walks quickly using a walker from one event to the next, while stopping for rest in between in her room.

She attends a current events gathering, where members of the St. John’s staff highlight the big news from the Albert Lea Tribune for that day.

“What’s amazing for me with Nellie is how alert she is and how well preserved she is,” St. John’s activities director Diane Wichmann said. “I tease her about doing commercials because of how well she looks.”

Johnson is always well dressed, and she gets her hair done outside of the facility every other week, Wichmann said. Johnson’s always been a loving, hardworking mother.

Every day when Wichmann arrives for work at St. John’s around 7 a.m. in the morning, she said, Johnson can be found already ready for the day sitting in front of the fish and birds.

After all, breakfast is still her best meal, the centenarian noted.

When asked whether she’s ever had any major health problems during the course of her life, Johnson replied, “I’ve been pretty alive all my life I think. It’s just my mouth that gets me in trouble. I get myself in trouble because I talk too much.”

In addition to staying active, Johnson said there are several things she’s done in her life that she’s proud of.

“I’ve never had a drink, and I’ve never had a cigarette in my life,” she said. “I’ve never said a bad word.”