Editor’s Note: This is the second 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.

Albert Lean Agnes Hedstrom is a woman who is sure to put a smile on your face.

Whether it’s through a kind deed such as baking a fresh batch of cookies, telling a simple joke or volunteering her time, her positive attitude toward life has helped her reach more than a century in age — 102 years to be exact.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Hedstrom goes out on the Albert Lea Transit bus to the grocery store. She’s involved with Salem Lutheran Church’s Sew ’N Tell group that meets once a week to sew quilts and socialize, along with the church’s Lydia Circle that meets once a month. She participates in monthly dinners at Luther Place, where she lives in her own condominium, and invites people over regularly for coffee.

“She’s always up,” said Lois Anderson, fellow Salem Lutheran Church member. “She’s an inspiration to know, always pleasant, always upbeat.”

Though Hedstrom doesn’t drive — she never learned how —she doesn’t let that stop her from doing what she wants. She either rides the bus or gets rides to places from friends.

And, of course, she does all of her own cleaning, cooking, baking, window washing and laundry, too.

She aims to never miss church.

“Whenever I miss church for two weeks, I feel like a heathen,” Hedstrom joked.

Though Hedstrom was born on March 14, 1907, in Olin, she has a mind that is sharp as a young person.

She lived in Olin until she was 3, when she moved to Blue Earth to live on a farm with her family. When she was 7, she moved to Rake, Iowa, where she later played the piano for black and white movies.

When she was 22, she moved to Albert Lea, where from 1928 to 1933, she worked five years at American Gas, after which she got married to Elmer Hedstrom. The couple had two boys and lived on Cedar Avenue for more than 50 years.

Her husband worked at American Gas and Queen Stove.

She recalled how she and her husband would walk six miles around the Fountain Lake every day, as long as the weather wasn’t bad.

In 1944, Hedstrom went to work at the Albert Lea Bakery on Broadway Avenue, where she worked for 27 years until the owners sold the bakery.

When asked how she managed to stay thin while working at a bakery, she said she was always too busy to even snitch a roll or another baked item.

Her favorite thing to bake now is casseroles, she said.

After working at the bakery, she then went to St. John’s Lutheran Home and volunteered. She volunteered there for 13 years during the mornings, transporting residents to therapy.

Once a week for five years she also volunteered helping a woman.

Hedstrom never had any major health problems, though she does now take medication for her heart, she said. Though she sometimes walks with a cane, she can get around well without it.

How did she live so long?

Hedstrom said she just did what came naturally.

“Think positive and pray a lot,” she said.

She lives a simple life, staying involved in different social circles, while also remembering to care for others.

Inside her condo, she has several ceramic clowns that were given to her over the years that remind her to stay upbeat and to try to make others laugh.

Anderson said Hedstrom is a joy to have around.

It is easy to keep track of her age because she was born the same year that Salem Lutheran started, Anderson noted. When Salem Lutheran celebrates an anniversary, Hedstrom celebrates another birthday.