SAN ANTONIO –
A San Antonio woman who turned 109 this month said she remembers the days of downtown rail cars, horse-drawn wagons and homes without running water or electricity.
Maria Gallegos Lopez continued celebrating her life Thursday with family and her WellMed health care providers. Her birthday was on July 11.
"I feel blessed, because she's in very good health. She's my life right now," said Rosemary Galvan, Lopez's daughter.
Galvan's parents were married for more than 50 years. After Lopez's husband's death, Lopez once again found love at the age of 90 and married her second husband.
"They met at the Presa Senior Center, so there's always hope," Galvan joked.
Lopez lived in downtown San Antonio for decades. Her family was forced from their home on Wyoming Street to make way for the Tower of the Americas and HemisFair in 1968.
Galvan said her mother still insists on helping with simple chores around the house, refuses to take naps and eats chile on everything.
The 109-year-old has been seen at the WellMed clinic, where her party was located, for five years. Her doctor, Richard Prezas, said aside from failing eyesight and hearing, she's perfectly healthy.
Lopez is WellMed's oldest south Texas patient. The company serves more than 280,000 people in Texas and Florida, most of them Medicare-eligible seniors.