If you live in certain parts of our great big country, it's not unusual to see hunters showing off their latest kills on social media.
But people were a little more impressed to see Bertha Vickers proudly standing in front of her doe on Facebook. Vickers, who turned 100 this month, defies a lot of stereotypes that people may have about hunters. The centenarian bagged the deer a few weeks ago just miles from her home.
Vickers, like most 100-year-olds, isn't on Facebook. But her relatives insisted on sharing a photo of her posing with the animal on social media, and the kudos and birthday wishes started pouring in.
"I don't know why everybody is making such a big deal about it," Vickers said. "If I'd killed a big buck I could see it, but it was just a doe."
Despite her modesty, Vickers is probably the oldest huntress (and fisherwoman) in America.
It all comes naturally to Vickers, who says she grew up in a small farming community, and married her husband in the midst of the Great Depression.
She also revealed what's next on her bucket list.
Despite her old age, Vickers is still cooking for herself, mowing her own lawn, and gardening in her spare time.
She even had a pot of coffee and homemade cake ready when reporters came to interview her about her viral photo.
"There weren't any jobs," she says about her early life in Oktibbeha County, Missouri. "When [her husband Bert] wasn't farming he hauled logs and worked at a sawmill. Times was hard."
While Bert passed away from cancer in 2001, his weekly habit of hunting for deer on Sundays rubbed off on his wife. Vickers also finds time to hunt squirrels on her property, and the odd turkey or two every spring.
"Just to get to go and the thrill of catching or killing something is so exciting," she says about her unusual hobby. "I'm going to do just what I want to do."
Vickers says she has no plans to stop hunting any time soon, and is setting her sights on even bigger game...once the weather warms up a bit.
"I'm going to fish more than I did last year. I would love to kill a buck. I can't hunt in this cold, but it will warm up."
I hope I'm as lively as her when I turn 100!
[H/T: The Clarion Ledger]
