Lucy Nemetz celebrated her 100th birthday earlier this year and her advice for living a long life was different from what you might expect.

Instead of the shake-your-finger admonitions to exercise, stop drinking and get lots of sleep, Nemetz went rogue.

“Eat fewer fruits and vegetables,” Nemetz advised. “Eat more sweets!” 

The centenarian shared a kind of advice that emphasized the joy of living as Nemetz, her family and friends partied at Spring Mill Pointe, a senior living community in Lafayette Hill where Nemetz has lived since October 2023. Prior to that she lived nearby in Green Manor Valley Apartments for eight years and before that with her husband, Joe, in Fort Washington for over 50 years.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Nemetz and her brother, Albert, were raised on a mushroom farm in Kennett Square, Chester County. Could that be the origin of her advice about vegetables?

 “It was a lot of work for most of the year,” she said last week. “A mushroom farm is not like other farms. Mushrooms are grown inside a building during the spring and fall. My father and brother picked the mushrooms, sometimes with a few hired workers, and my mother and I would pack them into small wooden boxes with handles. My father paid a transportation company to pick them all up and deliver them to New York City. We had to work quickly, and it was always hot and smelly.

“After the harvest, we had to clean out the building, removing all the manure to get ready for the next growing season. The next batch would arrive in glass-topped containers. We had to break the lids with a hammer and divide the mushroom into pieces by hand to be planted … and mom made a cake every week, vanilla with vanilla icing.” 

Nemetz graduated from Beacon College in North Jersey in 1943 with a business degree and worked as a bookkeeper for Visiting Nurses in Marcus Hook for five years. After she and her husband moved to Fort Washington, she worked as a bookkeeper for Charles Smith Realty/Insurance in North Hills for several years. 

Nemetz and her husband, Joe, were married for 59 years. Joe passed away July 5, 2010, of pneumonia at age 84. For over a decade, the couple owned Chap's Pub in Lansdale. As part of their retirement plan, the couple sold the bar in the early 1980s, but Nemetz couldn’t sit still. 

She worked for many years as a restaurant server. These days, Nemetz is an accomplished seamstress who reads hundreds of books each year and loves a good romance novel, especially those by Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, Robyn Carr and Sandra Browne. 

“What I like about romance novels,” Nemetz said, “is that there is always a happy ending.”

What was it like running the pub — the pluses and minuses? 

“We bought Chap's Pub in the late 1960s Nemetz,” Lucy recalled “It was hard work and long hours. We had to cook, clean, shop and serve seven days a week. The customers were nice. It was interesting talking to all the different people. Our daughter worked with us full-time. Our older son and his future wife worked a shift or two while in college. Even our youngest did odd jobs around the pub.

“My daughter and I did most of the serving at Chap's. After we sold it, my husband retired, but I worked as a server at Williamsons, the Warrington Motor Lodge and the Pike Restaurant. I liked serving food and meeting new people. I made good tips, but I never met anyone famous.”

Nemetz had one sibling, Albert, who was three years her senior. He eventually moved to California and worked in a lumber business but ended up, not surprisingly, as a very successful  mushroom farmer. 

Nemetz's son, Joey 69, and his wife, Debbie, have three children and five grandchildren. Her daughter, Kathleen, 64, has two children. Both were married last year. Her son, Gary, 61, and his wife, Jeannie, have three children. They celebrated a wedding recently. 

“So, altogether,” Nemetz said, “I have three children, six granddaughters, two grandsons, four great-grandsons and one great-granddaughter, to date! I am so proud to see my kids and grandkids educated, marrying and buying homes.”

With her family, the matriarch who has lived more than 100 years has shared a cherished piece of advice, but this time, the suggestion is a little more conventional -  “be nice.”

For more information, visit humangood.org. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.