Nora Matthews pauses for a photo at her home in the Sparta area.

Matthews celebrates her 100th birthday

"I don't feel old. Some days I feel bad, but I don't feel old. Everybody has bad days and good days," said Nora Matthews of Sparta. Matthews celebrated her 100th birthday Feb. 23, becoming the second Alleghany County resident to reach the century mark during the first two months of this year.

She remarked, "It sounds funny. People ask how old you are, and I'm 100 — that don't sound right. Really I can't tell no difference than when I was 80."

Matthews was born Feb. 23, 1903 in Grayson County, Va. to Addie Blevins and Columbus Rutherford. Her father was a farmer there, raising corn, wheat, cattle and pigs.

She and her six siblings helped out on the farm. "Daddy had a job for us — not like the kids now. They'd like to die if they had to do like we did then....I hoed corn and helped cut and shuck corn. We'd have some bean stringings and corn shuckings," she said.

"The kids when I grew up all worked. From when we were small, we had chores. We never fussed about what we had to do."

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