An email recently arrived from a lady named Paula Gorgey, who is a fan of my work. We corresponded a bit and I learned that Paula is 100 years old and had grown up in Hungary. Sensing a good story, I asked if she would consent to a phone interview. Much to my delight, she said yes.

“I was born in Budapest on August 24, 1925, just a few years after the Great War,” Paula began. “My father was an officer on a submarine during the war, and it’s a great point of pride that my grandson is currently serving on a nuclear submarine based in Hawaii.”

I asked Paula about her childhood.

“My mother came from landed gentry, and my maternal grandfather was a well-to-do farmer. He owned thousands of acres and had cattle, sheep, and pigs. I would spend Augusts on my grandfather’s farm, and it was heaven. We would go for carriage rides to view his farms. If you couldn’t find me at mealtime, I was probably spending time with my grandfather’s Hungarian Grey cattle.”

Paula’s father was appointed to the post of military attaché to Berlin in 1936.

“The Nazis arrested him in 1944 and accused him of being anti-Nazi. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but his life was saved when his camp was liberated by the Americans and the Russians. My mother, my two sisters and I spent a lot of time in bomb shelters during the war.”

I asked Paula what she recalled of the Holocaust.

“Many Jews were taken to the camps,” she said. “In my husband’s hometown, 30% of the population was sent to the camps. We Hungarians tried to help the Jews as much as we could.”

Paula’s troubles weren’t over when World War II ended.

“The Soviets took over Hungary, and Stalin decreed that all the land was to be redistributed. Anyone who owned more than two shirts was declared an enemy of the state and internally deported. My mother, my sisters and I were sent to a small village in eastern Hungary. You have to live through it to understand what it’s like when the world is cut out from beneath you completely.”

Paula, her mother, and her sisters were eventually put to work carrying water to workmen who were building a highway.

“It was all being done by hand, with shovels and wheelbarrows,” she recalled. “We carried water to the men in five-gallon containers. But that turned out good for me because it’s how I met a young truck driver named Laszlo.”

Laszlo had been a lieutenant in the Hungarian Army’s mounted artillery. He was captured and spent two years in a POW camp. Paula and Laszlo were wed in 1954.

“Things weren’t very good under the communist regime, and Radio Free Europe kept saying ‘come to America’ so we decided to go,” Paula said. “My father had gone to America and became a citizen, so he sponsored us.”

“I first set foot on U.S. soil when we got off the boat at Newark, New Jersey on January 7, 1957. I’ll never forget that day. Laszlo and I didn’t know a word of English. He and I picked up English mostly on our own. I learned a lot by reading the ads on streetcars.”

The young couple’s first home was in the Washington, D.C. area, where Laszlo secured a teaching position.

“My first job in America was as a manicurist in a D.C. department store. That was one of the most interesting jobs I’ve ever had. There was a lot of camaraderie among the employees. It was a great experience.”

Laszlo advanced up the academic ladder until he became a professor in the University of South Carolina’s Department of International Studies.

“Whenever we moved to a new place, I would get a few chickens if it was allowed,” Paula said. “It did our kids good to see what it was like to keep and breed livestock. Free-range eggs and chicken are the best. I don’t have chickens anymore, but I’ll only buy free-range eggs and poultry at the market.”

Paula and Laszlo had two daughters and a son. Laszlo passed away in 1983 at the age of 61.

I asked Paula if there was a secret to longevity.

“I come from good stock,” she replied. “I had an aunt who lived to 105 and a cousin who made it to 103. My grandmother died at 99 but only because she was overcome by smoke inhalation in a bomb shelter. My father believed in physical fitness and a low-fat diet that was high in vegetables. I never eat processed food.”

Paula’s attitude probably has a lot to do with her longevity.

“All of the hardships and deportations only strengthened me. No matter what, I’ve always had an upbeat attitude!”

— Jerry’s book, “Dear County Agent Guy” can be found at www.workman.com and in bookstores nationwide.