103-year-old celebrates birthday sailing on the Great Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY — Lou Calder spent her 103rd birthday playing a round of golf with her great-grandson and sailing on the Great Salt Lake.

"I think it's beautiful, lovely," Calder said of her sailing experience. "(It's) the best birthday present I've had."

Anne DellaMora, marketing director at The Wellington senior living center in Salt Lake City, where Calder lives, took the centenarian sailing for her birthday with captain J.R. Reynolds of the Great Salt Lake Experience.

"I think she's the most wonderful woman," DellaMora said of Calder. "I see her every day at work. She's practically running down the hallways, and she's out walking around the building when I drive in in the morning. And then I see her on the new step machine in the fitness room. It's like, wow, 103."

Calder said she walks around The Wellington every morning after breakfast. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she's in the exercise room, "and I ride everything in there," she said.

"I hear a lot of people say, 'Oh, if I could live my life over,'" Calder said. "And I say, 'If I could live mine over, I wouldn't change one thing."

After living 103 years, Calder has plenty of stories to tell — and no shortage of listening ears, with 37 great-great-grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren, five grandchildren and one daughter.

One of Calder's grandsons already is making plans for her 104th birthday, she said.

"My one grandson said, 'Well, I'll take you golfing next year, Grandma,'" Calder said.

"And I said, 'I won't be here next year,'" to which he responded, "Oh, yes you will," she recalled.

"So I said, 'If I'm here, I know where my golf clubs are," Calder said.

Twitter: @FinleyJY