Photo: Video screenshot (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
UPDATE as of June 18, 2016: Unfortunately, friends had hoped a fourth close friend, Leona Barnes, would be able to take part in the celebration of the 100-year-old festivities, but she died in May, two months shy of her 100th birthday (June 18th). The ceremony paid tribute to Barnes, and a large portrait of her sat on the church bench beside her friends throughout the 90-minute service.
—original article below—
‘I’ve known her all my life’ is a phrase Leona Barnes, Gladys Butler, Ruth Hammett and Bernice Underwood can say in full truth. The four women have been friends since their childhood days growing up in Southwest Washington (the same place Marvin Gaye was born). From playing jump rope together, living together, starting and raising families together, to seeing their neighborhood and world change over nearly a century, these 99-year-old lifelong friends never imagined they’d come this far together.
“We all are grateful, and we thank the Lord for all of us to see 99. If we don’t make 100, it’s up to Him — but we made the 99,” Barnes said in a Washington Post feature. The ladies are looking forward to each turning 100 this year, God willing.
One can only imagine the infinite wisdom and juicy stories they have, and obviously these ladies are doing more than a few things right to be here to tell it all.