A woman from Virginia celebrated her 110th birthday on October 4 and praised God for giving her a very long life.
The Christian Headlines said Berryville's Viola Brown celebrated a very special birthday surrounded by friends and family, along with Clarke County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Weiss who handed her the declaration that October 4 is officially "Viola Roberts Lampkin Brown Day." Along with the proclamation, which was encased in a frame, Brown was presented a cake with candles marking her age by the staff of the Blue Ridge Hospice.
During the celebration, Brown appreciated the declaration but revealed that "every day that the good Lord let's me stay here is my day." Brown is described by relatives to be a woman of faith and that such faith is her secret to having a long life.
Andrew Roberts, Brown's nephew, told The Christian Post in an interview that Jesus would actually be always on the lips of her aunt and often would be heard praising God for literally everything.
"My personal experience has been nothing but love and joy whenever I'm in her presence. There's never one minute that Jesus doesn't drip off her lips. It's as if she embodies Him. Everything she talks about and does, she gives honor and praise to God. I mean everything. She's a literal (believer)," Roberts shared.
Similarly, the 79-year-old Vonceil Hill, Brown's daughter, testified in an interview on her mother's faith being her strength in life and secret to a healthy life. Brown is a member of the Zion Baptist Church.
"She never took any prescribed medication until she was 101. They put her on a low dose (medication) for high blood pressure," Hill said.
Hill said her mother experienced healing from God and would also pray to God for sick people who ended up being well. She cited a particular incident when their stove exploded back in 1960 that her mother's two legs were injured. The doctors then said she would never be able to walk any more. But her mother's resilience enabled her to keep "going up and down on her bottom" on the stairs, insisting that God would make her walk again.
"'I'm gonna walk. God told me I'm gonna walk.' And sure enough, she was home for about six months or a little more and she started walking," Hill recounted.
Besides that, Brown also battled ovarian cancer and won against it along with a mild stroke. Roberts said his aunt only stayed for three days in the hospital when she suffered a mild stroke. Brown is known to hate hospitals and wanted to come home quickly. She only suffers memory loss occasionally due to the mild stroke.
Brown was born in 1911 as the youngest among 13 children and is the only one left among them. She was first married to John Lampkin in 1936 and had two children with him. One of her children has already died while her husband followed in 1982. She then remarried in 1988 to Rev. Paul Brown who died a decade later. She currently has eight grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, as well as, three great great grandchildren.
Brown has since stayed in the house she and her first husband had and Hill moved in with her last year when she became too weak to walk on her own.
Clarke County last year celebrated her 109th birthday by featuring her in their Facebook page with her photo holding her cookbook, "Viola's Favorite Recipes," published in 1988. According to the County, Viola worked her way in life as a domestic at a very young age.
"Viola Roberts Lampkin Brown holds copy of her 1988 cookbook, 'Viola's Favorite Recipes', in this September 2020 photo taken a few weeks before her 109th birthday. Viola began work as a domestic at age 7 and cooked and cleaned for others throughout most of her adult life while also raising her family," Clarke County said.
