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Lively centenarian Helen Godfrey still playing violin
For one Greencastle native, adding another year to her age will simply be adding another year to a life well spent.
Helen Godfrey, 100, of Mill Pond Health Campus in Greencastle, will be celebrating her 101st birthday on Tuesday, Oct. 4.
And that’s just the beginning.
A violinist at heart, Godfrey said she not only likes to play the classic instrument, but also enjoyed repairing (and even making) violins at her former, home-based outlet titled Home Sweet Home Violin Shop.
“DePauw (University) here in Greencastle used to offer special classes for adults,” Godfrey said during an interview with the Banner Graphic. “I took ceramics, music appreciation, violin and art before I ended up doing pool exercises at the DePauw pool.
“I had a violin shop in my home called Home Sweet Home Violin Shop for 10 years after taking classes at DePauw,” Godfrey continued. “I just love playing and repairing them for people.”
The daughter of Albert and Rose Ann Thompson (Lancaster), Godfrey was born in 1915 right along the Parke County and Putnam County line, where her father operated a store built by her uncle.
Then, at the age of five, her family moved right across the road into Putnam County where her mother Rose Ann lived.
“Rockville is where my birth certificate is,” Godfrey said. “But we moved into Putnam County where my mother was from and I’ve been here ever since.”
A resident of Mill Pond Health Campus since November of 2015, Godfrey is a 1934 graduate of Greencastle High School (when the school had larger regional boundaries) and took classes at DePauw University throughout the 1950s and 1960s before working at the dime store in Greencastle.
Godfrey also worked as a bookkeeper at Montgomery Ward in Greencastle before providing the same services for her husband’s machine and welding shop.
However, during the years of World War II, Godfrey supported the war effort by working at the arts and crafts store titled Alison’s in Indianapolis, which saw a bit of a change of product in wartime.
“We closed down our home during the war,” Godfrey explained, “and that’s when I worked at Alison’s shining little buttons (and rivets) on engine parts that went into (plane) engines.”
Once the war was over, Godfrey and her husband came back from Indianapolis to their home in Greencastle where they continued to work in welding/machinery.
Her husband worked extensively with steel once IBM came to the area.
“They cut that steel like paper,” Godfrey said.
Though Godfrey had no children of her own, she comes from a large family with five sisters and two brothers, each of whom have resided in the Putnam County area.
Godrey, who suffers from dizzy spells and a lack of balance, explained that she can still walk as long as she has something sturdy to grasp.
“I used to use a cane and then I used a walker, and that worked out OK,” Godfrey said. “But now I’m pretty much bound to my wheelchair, but that’s OK because (the Mill Pond employees) come and get me and take me wherever I need to go.
“They take me up to dinner and anywhere,” Godfrey added. “They are very nice and very excited that I’m going to be in the Banner Graphic.”
Godfrey added that she continues to keep up with Greencastle’s current events through the daily newspaper, but said she probably didn’t miss anything by sleeping through the recent presidential debate.
“That couldn’t have been much of anything,” Godfrey said.
Still in good spirits, this cheerful centenarian is planning on staying at Mill Pond at 100 years and counting.