PIKEVILLE, Ky. (MTN) — The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way we go about our lives, even down to how we celebrate it.
But the staff at Cedar Creek Assisted Living in Pikeville Kentucky wasn’t going to let one special resident go without a proper celebration on her 100th birthday as they planned a surprise drive-by parade in honor of her milestone achievement.
Gearldean Branham says that life has been good to her so far mainly due to her loving parents who were raised with mountain culture.
“I’ve had a wonderful life… had good parents… hard-working parents… mountain people,” states Branham.
She describes the vast changes she has witnessed growing up in Eastern Kentucky in 1920.
“We didn’t have a telephone until I was about 16,” says Branham. “I remember ice trucks being pulled by mules through the streets of Pond Creek… you know how it is now.”
After being hospitalized in Florida for 3 months before coming to Cedar Creek Assisted Living in Pikeville, Kentucky, she says that her stay was longer than expected.
