100 Years of Humility

She welcomes family into her home and offers them baked goods.

Then she tells them to leave. 

A 100 year-old resident of Coon Rapids, Minn., Lois Kemming seems to know humility better than anyone.

Throughout her childhood, Kemming was constantly told she was imposing, because her father always dropped her off at her aunt’s house during the day.  

“My aunt had six kids. She needed me around like she needed a hole in the head,” Kemming said.

Ever since, Kemming has been seeking to put others before herself, whether she feels they deserve it or not. She will often tell her family to leave and go do something they really enjoy.

“She’s a terrible host,” her son Craig Kemming joked.

After starting work at a bakery at age 12, Kemming found no job beneath her and did what she could to support herself.  During World War II, she held a variety of jobs for a short time.  Although she worked in a wood factory, a nursing home, and the kitchen of a tea room, Kemming found no job too difficult or tiresome to complain about.

“I was happy, it was a better life than [when] I was living unemployed,” Kemming said.

It was while working at a tea room in 1936 that Kemming met her husband, Walt.  The two got married shortly after, and had a son in 1949.

Although she only received an 8^th grade education, Kemming sought to give her son the best opportunities she could to enable him to succeed.  She didn’t let her short education stop her from helping others, as she gave her time to leading a Sunday school class, her son’s Cub Scout troop, and a mission band.

Kemming’s husband passed away in 1964, and she has been living on her own ever since.  She currently lives on her own in an apartment complex close to her son Craig, daughter-in-law Susan, and grandchildren Jessica and Bethany.  Jessica is a nurse, and is frequently able to help Kemming with her medical needs.  Craig and Jessica visit her almost every day to bring groceries or just to visit, and are told to leave more than anyone else.  

Kemming is unable to attend church regularly, but is one of the few residents that regularly attend a small Bible study in her apartment building. Now she spends most of her time baking and cooking for her family, friends, and neighbors, putting others before her, even in old age.