105-Year-Old Adrian Woman Reflects On Life, And Ministry

Adrain resident Lillian Tenniswood, 105, said her faith in God and family genes may be the key to her longevity. Most of her siblings lived into their 90's.

By Dan Cherry
Daily Telegram Staff Writer
Posted Nov. 10, 2014 @ 5:00 pm 

On Oct. 20,  1909, Sanilac County, Michigan, native and now-Adrian resident Lillian Tenniswood was born. William Howard Taft was president, Titanic was in its early stages of construction, and Shipton, Kansas — a dying town in the north-central part of the state — was sold at auction for $2,620.

Aside from her steadfast faithfulness to God and sharing the gospel, Tenniswood, 105, said she has no great secret to longevity.

Her niece, Charlene Linderman, lightheartedly suggested to her that perhaps she picked the right parents.

“Oh, I have no idea,” Tenniswood said with a laugh. “I hadn’t a thing to do with it.”

Longevity is a common factor with Tenniswood and her siblings. She had four brothers and two sisters, and though one brother died as a small child, the rest of her siblings all lived into their 90s.

Growing up in the Detroit area, Tenniswood was part of home-based church services, or gospel meetings, as she called them, on Sundays. Wednesdays were reserved for mid-week Bible studies.

“They were open to anybody,” she said of the nondenominational gatherings. If more than 30 people expressed interest in the meetings, another home host would be found to split the attendees into smaller groups.

Tenniswood’s faith background determined the course of her life. She joined the ministry in her mid-20s, traveling across the United States and around the world to share her faith with others.

She never married, and traveled simply, with a Bible and a suitcase.

“I remembered the importance of serving God,” she said. “I had no other books than the Bible. I just had what I needed to live.”

Tenniswood’s travels took her to  Brazil, Korea, Taiwan and, in what would be her last major trip overseas in the 1980s, the Philippines. She was active in doing ministry work into her 90s, and she said she will share the gospel with anyone who asks her. She still writes letters to those she has met over the years and receives many letters and cards from well-wishers.

Tenniswood has seen two world wars in her lifetime and 18 U.S. presidents come and go from the White House. She has witnessed inventions like the television, the landing of astronauts on the moon, and the digital age. But she has kept it all in perspective and said nothing stands out to her as being all that extraordinary.

“We didn’t get too excited over anything,” she said about new devices and conveniences. “If others had them, that was all right.”

Tenniswood recalled one instance in her younger years when she attempted to crank-start a vehicle and the crank snapped backwards. “It broke my arm,” she said.

Car engines through the 1920's were started by turning a crank on the front bottom area of the radiator. If the person did not keep a firm grip while turning the crank, the building tension could release and the crank spin would backwards, causing injury.

Tenniswood’s parents once owned a farm in Hudson, and she herself moved to Adrian approximately 10 years ago to live with her niece. Tenniswood is now a resident at the Lenawee Medical Care Facility.

And it is there she fondly reflected Wednesday on her years on the earth.

“It’s been a full life, I’ve met a lot of people who spoke different languages,” she said. “We all had a close fellowship. It wasn’t like stranger to stranger. I felt at home wherever I went.” 

Source: lenconnect.com