THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602230163
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Susie Stoughton
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Katharine Gatling is like a kid at Christmas as she waits for her birthday this week.
Mrs. Gatling, who might be the youngest resident of Hillcrest Retirement Center, plans to celebrate Thursday as she turns 23 - or 92, depending on how you count.
Like others who were born Feb. 29, she just ages slowly - if you only add up her birthdays. That either makes the celebration four times as special, or four times as hard to await.
``I didn't like it much as a child,'' Mrs. Gatling said last week. ``I thought I was cheated out of something.''
Now it's special. ``I enjoy it because it's kind of odd to be born on that day.''
Plenty of folks try to shave a few years off their age, but determining age can pose a real problem for those whose birthdays play leap frog, hopping over three years at a time.
Do these particular Pisces people celebrate only on their official birthdate? Or, if they party in between, should the festivities be held the day before or the day after, which is even a different month?
Mrs. Gatling chose Feb. 28 for her ``non-birthday'' parties because that was her parents' wedding anniversary. Celebrating together made it more special.
Then, birthdays weren't such elaborate affairs as some are today, she said. ``Mama would make me a little cake, and the children would get together and sing `Happy Birthday.' ''
Despite not having much money, her mother made some sort of fuss whenever someone had a birthday.
``But when mine came, that was special,'' said Mrs. Gatling, who was the middle of five children.
``That was a big time for me,'' she said. ``The highlight was to blow the candles off the cake.''
Only one of her siblings - a younger sister, Sadie - is still living. But if Mrs. Gatling only ages every fourth year, she's now younger than her sister.
Mrs. Gatling's children - Wilfred Gatling Jr. and Joyce Ward, both Suffolk residents - have gotten older than their mother. Even her youngest grandchild, who's 34, is older than she is.
``I've had a good life,'' she said, rocking in her favorite chair. ``I have two nice children and four grandchildren.
``But I can't remember how many great-grandchildren I have.''
``Five,'' Ward reminded her.
They are the only ones in the family who haven't passed her.
She was young when she married her husband, Wilfred, in 1920. She was 16 - or 4, which may set a record.
``I guess I shouldn't have done that,'' she said of getting married so young. ``But he was 25 and old enough to get married.''
Wilfred Gatling was working at a grocery store on West Washington Street when he saw her walk past on her way to a job at Woolworth's. He arranged for someone to introduce them, and four months later, they were married.
They lived across the street from her parents in a two-room apartment at first.
``Then we got three rooms, then I accumulated the children,'' she said.
They had been married 46 years when he died. That's half her life, if she's going to be 92 this week. But if she will be 23, she had twice as many years of togetherness as she's had birthdays.
She's enjoyed good health except for deafness she believes was caused by having measles and whooping cough together as a child.
Members of her Sunday school class at First Baptist Church are coming to help her celebrate Thursday. That night, her family will gather for a party and cake.
Before she moved to the retirement home a little more than a year ago, she enjoyed entertaining and often threw her own birthday parties - making cakes and cookies and inviting people to help her celebrate.
She intends to whoop it up this year.
``I'm going to do cartwheels out there,'' she said, pointing to the hall.
Not bad for someone who will be 100 after two more birthdays. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Katharine Gatling will be 92 on Feb. 29. ``I'm going to do
cartwheels out there,'' she said, pointing to the hallway of
Hillcrest Retirement Center.
by CNB