Imagine working 11-hour days, six days a week. Most people might raise hell. It often feels like 8-hour days, 5 days a week with possible overtime can be stressful. Now, imagine those 11-hour days, 6 days a week at the age of 100? One elderly woman is doing just that - with no complaints!
Felemina Rotundo turned 100 in August, but still works in a Buffalo, New York laundromat Monday through Saturday, rather than "taking it easy" at an old folks home.
"I don't believe in retirement,'' Rotundo told TODAY. "I believe 65 is too young. If I retired at 65, what would I have done all these years? I would've gone crazy! I work because I love people. I want to be around people."
Moreover, Rotundo believes washing and folding clothes keeps her sane.
"That's why you have sick people in the old folks home,'' she said. "They didn't have enough to do and their mind deteriorated."
Rotundo has been working since she was 15.
"My first job was working at a shoe factory in Annville, Pennsylvania, when I was 15 years old,'' she said. "Talk about slave labor. I was making about $10 a week, but I worked my 40 hours and never complained. I was glad to have a job."
Apparently, she still is. Rotundo told TODAY she wastes little time with television and devotes most of her time to keeping busy.
"I think being around a lot of people keeps your mind busy,'' she said. "I have to take a walk on Sunday in the afternoon with my dog because I'm not working. I don't spend too much time watching TV except the news. I read the paper every day because you get so much more out of the paper."
Rotundo attributes her diligent work ethic to The Great Depression.
"You have to grow up during the Depression to know what it's like to have hard times,'' she said. "What are you going to do? You survive. That's what makes you grow up to work hard and make some money. It makes you independent and able to say you made it through the hard times."
She is also encouraging more people value elders in the working class.
"I think they throw old people away and forget about them,'' she said. "Not me. I want to keep working. I think they should keep old people working as long as they can. If old people are working and independent, it makes them feel so much different."