On the way to 100: Hard work, lots of walking and holding no grudges

At 99, with her 100th birthday approaching on Dec. 18, Ruth Kessler’s memories go back to horse-and-buggy days, ice cut from the mill pond and walking five miles to school in Blain. But what people notice first is her laugh.

It arrives quick and bright, often at the end of a story she’s told a dozen times. It is contagious in the way it fills the room and pulls others along with it, a kind of music that has outlasted war, hard work, grief and change.

Kessler, born Ruth Sanderson, grew up as the eighth of 11 children of Maurice and Elsie Sanderson. The family lived first in Summerdale and then moved to New Germantown when she was a small child. Her father ran a sawmill and served as superintendent at New Germantown United Methodist Church, where Ruth’s faith and community roots were plant