Local woman celebrates 104th birthday

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By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

Josephine and Reinhold Schermer. Josephine celebrated her 104th birthday Tuesday. Contributed photo

GREENVILLE — A local woman celebrated an incredible milestone Tuesday when she marked her 104th birthday.

Josephine Schermer lives in Greenville and along with her husband, Reinhold Schermer, was the second generation of his family to run Pine Lake Manor, a vacation resort on Route 26 that has been in the family for generations.

While the family threw a big bash for Schermer’s 100th birthday a stunning four years ago, this year the celebration was a smaller family occasion due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Schermer’s granddaughter, Amy Short, said.

“This year we had a bunch of people create video birthday messages for her,” Short said of her grandmother’s birthday.

But not even COVID could stop the festivities. Schermer, who lives with her daughter, Gayle Schermer, in Greenville, enjoyed a more intimate family birthday celebration Tuesday evening.

Short said her grandmother has had a long and productive life.

“I think she got to this age because she has always been active and a hard worker,” Short said. “She has been working very hard since she was younger — raising a family and running a business — and she just has always been a very hard worker.”

Josephine Schermer at her 100th birthday party four years ago. Contributed photo

Her generosity of spirit has also been a hallmark of Schermer’s personality, her granddaughter said, and that sentiment was repeated over and over in the birthday videos created by family and friends.

“She is probably the nicest, kindest, most generous person that I know, and I am sure many of the people who know her would agree with that as well,” Short said. “Many of the people on the video messages talk about how kind she was to their parents or to contemporaries of hers, and how they could always rely on her.”

“She is just a very nice, giving, generous, kind person,” Short added.

Check back for more on this developing story.

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