At 100, JoCleta Wilson isn’t ready to retire just yet — but she’s ready to share her tips for a long life.
Wilson works two mornings a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., at a home depot in Louisville, Kentucky — making her the company’s oldest employee in the U.S.
The centenarian applied for jobs to socialize and engage with people after retirement bored her.
“It’s because I want to communicate with people,” Wilson told WAVE 3 News. “If you don’t work, you lose the art of speaking.
“I retired three times. Each time it was 10 years, and I got so sick of myself that I couldn’t take it,” she said.
She celebrated her most recent landmark birthday last October with a live tour of her home, with two pianists and 80 guests, and a “big party” hosted by Home Depot.
Wilson lives independently in her own home, driving herself to work and to the store, not to mention cooking for herself.
She hires help for cleaning and yard work, explaining to TODAY.com with a laugh, “I could, but I don’t want to. I’ve gotten a little smarter at this age.”
But Wilson doesn’t necessarily feel her age.
“I feel like I’m 39 going into my 40s. That’s how I feel,” she noted.
The energetic woman is a breast cancer survivor with emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a pacemaker, but insists “everything else is working fine” and remains extremely active as she has throughout her life.
“You can’t sweat the small stuff. So I just don’t think about it,” she said.
Wilson was a professional dancer for most of her life, starting as a child and later performing with the Juni Taylor Dancers doing rhythm.
For 37 years, she owned and taught at the Louisville Dance Academy and still dances every day. She uses her Alexa speaker to play music that inspires her to let go.
“I have the radio everywhere. Thank goodness for Alexa. I tell her to play something that’s really good to dance to, and I have that,” she said. “I let go and move and do what I want to do, and it feels good. This is my exercise.”
Wilson embraces creativity, which he believes is the key to a fulfilling life.
Along with dancing, she has written a cookbook, paints – she has an Instagram page featuring her artwork, available for purchase – sings and is learning piano.
Her healthy diet is also very important to her. After being diagnosed with cancer three times, she remembered a nurse’s advice: “Cancer feeds on sugar.”
So she left it – more or less.
“I always have a chocolate cake in my fridge,” she admitted, as she allows herself the occasional treat. “I get a slice, but maybe once a week.” She also keeps ice cream in the fridge and has a scoop every now and then.
She also gave up bacon and cheese after problems with high cholesterol and now eats only lean protein and avoids white flour.
But her advice for a long life isn’t about diet or exercise.
“I always say: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry. Don’t let everything make you angry. “Anger takes a lot of muscle and a lot of good out of your life,” Wilson said.
“It is much easier to think positively than to think negatively. It takes much less effort. And that’s what I try to do.”
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