By Mary Pannabecker Steiner
Christine Purves began climbing trees as a child growing up in Berne, Ind., first in her grandfather's back yard where a huge elm "branched out with perfect places to sit and view the area surrounding it."
Later, when her parents bought their first home, a big mulberry tree proved to be the perfect place for Purves to escape to sit and read, "all the while being very careful not to go back into the house full of mulberry stains."
More than eight decades later, Purves is still climbing trees - despite the fact that she uses a walker for stability when walking. In fact, she observed her 90th birthday by fulfilling a wager that she placed on her 60th birthday. From that point on, she would mark every decade by climbing a tree.
In 1979, Purves and her husband, Jack, were volunteering with the United Church of Christ of southern Africa, helping with a secondary school in the most remote area of Botswana.
On her 60th birthday, she was photographed climbing a marula, an ancient southern African fruit-bearing tree. She sent the photo to her daughters, Jean, Greta and Mary, declaring that she would climb a tree every 10 years on her birthday. Why? "It just hit me that it would be fun to send our children back in the USA a photo of me "up a tree" in Botswana on my 60th birthday. I still felt physically agile at that time and loved the activity," said Purves.
Sure enough, 10 years later when she turned 70, she climbed a tree in Bluffton and had her photo taken. That tree, she admits, wasn't as high as the marula.
"At age 80, I found myself at the Simcox (family friend) cabin in Michigan and I climbed one of their trees. Well, anyway, I stepped about a foot and a half off the ground into a fork in one of their trees, planted both feet there, hung on with each arm to the trunks, smiled, and they took a photo," she said.
This year, at age 90, accompanied by her daughter, Greta, she walked to a blue spruce at Maple Crest, where she now lives. The small tree had been in memory of her husband.
There, with the help of her walker, she "lifted one foot and planted it ON the tree, fulfilling my promise to 'climb' a tree every 10 years." Greta took that photo. Though she doesn't think her daughters expected her to "climb" one this year, she admits they were probably not surprised that she found a way to do it.
"The fact that it was Jack's tree made it more meaningful," said Purves, explaining that the tree was grown from a small twig which the Medical College of Ohio gave to all families who had donated a body to the Medical School for research during the year of 2002.
Asked what she'll do in 10 years to celebrate 100 years of age, Purves answers with her usual candor. "I suppose there is a strong possibility I will be planted UNDER a tree."
