Longtime Mexico resident Alma Turbin-Woodward turns 100 years old tomorrow and she loves talking about her life raising kids in town.

“I love Mexico,” Woodward said. “That’s my town.”

Woodward is living in Heritage Hall Nursing Home in Centralia. She’s lived there just over a year and is enjoying life but she misses Mexico.

“I liked the people and I could get around,” Woodward said. “They always treated me nice. I don’t care what anybody says, I still love it.”

One of the reasons Woodward loves Mexico so much is because it feels like home and a place where she could settle down. As a youth, Woodward moved around Northeast Missouri a lot. When asked where she grew up her response was, “Everywhere.”

Woodward bounced around from small town to small town. Places like Bowling Green, Louisiana, and Edgewood were all home at some point. She eventually graduated from high school in the small town of Eiola and shortly afterward married the love of her life, Homer Woodward. Homer lived in what Alma calls “The Knobs.”

“He lived down in the hills and he would walk up there and see me,” Woodward said.

The young couple was living in Louisiana in 1944 when they made a trip to Mexico to visit Alma’s mother who was living there. The Woodwards both held jobs in factories but learned the pay was a lot better in Mexico.

“Up in Mexico they were making $1.50 an hour,” Woodward said. “We had been making about $0.50.”

Woodward said it took about a month before she and Homer packed up and moved to Mexico.

“I didn’t want to live anywhere else after I came to Mexico and found out how everything was,” Woodward said. “I wanted to live right there. I didn’t want to live anywhere else.”

Woodward said they were not alone. At the time of the war, Mexico was a bustling town full of life and factories were begging for workers.

“You have never seen such a little town that was so busy,” Woodward said. “You couldn’t rent anything because everything was full. There were people everywhere and they were always wanting people to work.”

The Woodwards had six children, three boys and three girls. Three of her adult children are still alive. Homer passed away in 1996 after the couple had been married for 54 years. Woodward said her house was always welcoming and the place to be.

“We always had a good time at our house,” Woodward said.

One time Alma noticed her boys were spending a lot of their time going uptown to play pool so she went and bought a table for their home. She put it right in the middle of one of the kids’ rooms.

“They didn’t have to go uptown to play pool,” Woodward said. “They could play right there and it kept them from getting into trouble. As long as they were at our house they weren’t getting into trouble.”

One of Woodward’s friends at Heritage Hall stopped by to listen. She told Woodward she’s lived a wild life.

“I have lived a life I can tell you,” Woodward said. “I don’t know if it was wild but it was busy.”