Woman celebrates her 108th birthday

By David Caltabiano

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    GLOBE, Arizona (KPHO) — A Globe woman is celebrating her 108th birthday. Carmen Slough is well-known in the Globe-Miami area, she was born in Douglas but has lived in the town her entire life. Slough owned a clothing store in Downtown Globe for 49 years, and today she’s celebrating an incredible milestone with family and friends.

“We didn’t have paved streets,” Slough said, remembering the early days of Globe. “There was still a few people who got around on horseback.” Slough lived through the Spanish Flu when she was just four years old, but she remembers it like it was yesterday. “I was old enough to know that something was wrong,” she said. “There was a lot of people in the area that did pass away from the flu at that time.”

At the age of 106, another virus — this time COVID-19 — turned her world upside down. Slough admits it affected her, saying, “The isolation was really, really bad for me because I was used to being a part of the community.”

Slough’s late husband was a WWI veteran, and her siblings fought in WWII. “I remember the people that we lost and the valor of our local boys that served overseas,” said Slough. Her son Bob is 86 years old and relies on his mom’s recollection. “She’s a wonder,” said Bob. A wonder who has a secret to being a 108.

“I don’t believe in just sitting down and giving up, I believe in going out in the sunshine, picking weeds, and working in the garden,” said Slough. She has a little brother, the only surviving sibling in her family of nine, who’s 98 years old.

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