Resident turns 102

At age 102, Newport Beach resident Mona Schwaer doesn’t think there’s any secret to long life, but having a lot of friends doesn’t hurt, she said.

“I’ve never smoked, and only drank socially,” she said with a shrug on Thursday in her tidy Newport Beach living room, which is covered in paintings ranging from landscapes to portraits she did herself.

“She’s kind of an enigma,” said friend Donna Rivera. “All of us look at her and go, ‘Can we be that way when we get to be 102?’”

The centenarian still lives independently, although her only son drops by to drive her to the store from time to time — she drove herself until she was 100.

Schwaer seems to collect friends wherever she goes, striking up conversations at department stores or restaurants.

“She has no fear of walking up to someone to ask, ‘Can you help me?’” Rivera said. “She’ll just start up a conversation and she has a new friend.”

One of the hardest parts of growing older is losing friends, Schwaer said.

“I have to keep making new ones, because all of my dear old friends have all passed away,” she said.

Schwaer’s husband died in 1988, and an adult son and grandson are her only surviving family.

“She’s told us she wants to stay with a younger set of friends, so she doesn’t outlive them,” Rivera said. “She doesn’t live in the past. She lives and celebrates every day of the present.”

Schwaer celebrated her 102nd birthday last week with a party at her home with wine and cake, where she gave each of her friends an envelope with $7 and instructions to go to a department store to buy something for themselves.

“She said it gave her more pleasure to do something for us than any gift,” said Schwaer’s friend Susan Daum. “The fact that she’s so interested in everyone else is part of her charm.”

Schwaer’s first memory is knitting squares to be parsed together into lap robes for wounded World War I veterans when she was 8 or 9 in Tulsa, Okla.

She continues to knit today, making colorful scarves and purses.

She’s also a confessed shopaholic.

“If you get me near a store, I’m off in a flash,” Schwaer said with a twinkle in her eyes.

Schwaer also listens to books on tape, ranging from mysteries to history, to keep her mind nimble, she says.

“You have to keep learning,” she said. “You can never stop; there’s always something new to discover.”

Reporter BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.