Sitting quietly on the end of her sofa, Lula Mae Cooper listened attentively as her daughters shared stories about her past.

From walking to church with the family to picking pears and plums for canning, Marian Cooper and Alma Donald told of days past with their mom, who on Nov. 1 turned 100 years old.

Cooper was born and raised in Utica, Marian Cooper said, and has lived in her current home for the past 50 years.

She was married to Roosevelt Cooper for 62 years and had eight children.

Marian Cooper said her mother is still able to care for herself, but she does have a nephew living with her.

Both daughters said their mother was a good cook and she loved sharing her skills with friends and family.

“I can remember when I was a young girl, anybody who would come to the house, my mother would feed them. She loved feeding others and to be around people. She would also cook for us and when we got off the bus, she would always have tea cakes, rice pudding, bread pudding or some kind of dessert waiting for us,” Marian Cooper said.

Donald said, her mother’s parents were sharecroppers and remembered them owning a mule and a plow.

Cooper added that she remembered picking cotton when she was younger.

“My sisters and mom and dad were out there too,” she said.

The family would pick cotton, Cooper said, go inside to eat and then return to the fields.

“Mama was a good cook, Cooper said, “And she would always find us something to eat.”

Days were long and work hard, but even after Cooper and her husband married and the children were born, the family’s needs were always taken care of, Marian Cooper said.

“Even though we weren’t rich, we still had everything we needed.”

In addition to Lula Mae Cooper’s cooking skills, both daughters said she was also an avid quilter.

“She used to quilt a lot. She would go down the street to a lady’s house and would quilt all day long. There were no classes that she took, she had just learned from her mother and grandmother,” Donald said.

And of course there was the garden that the daughters claimed was bounteous.

“We had a garden with peas, okra, butter beans, cucumbers. We had everything,” Marian Cooper said.

And when the kids were older, their mother took a job at Kuhn Memorial Hospital working in the cafeteria.

“At that time she made $50 a month,” Donald said.

Lula Mae Cooper said she credits her longevity to “the Good Lord,” and this past Sunday was recognized at her church, Great Zion M.B. Church and received a plaque.

Friends and extended family from across the country were in attendance to celebrate her milestone.