Fairlington Resident's Glass Is Half Full, and It Might Be Port
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Peggy Freiband looks a bit like pop singer Posh Spice, her straight white hair trendily cut longer in the front, shorter in the back. She holds it off her face with a jewel-studded bobby pin.
But the Arlington woman has a few years on the British singer. She will turn 100 in November and lives alone -- quite nicely, thank you -- in the three-bedroom garden apartment she has rented in Fairlington since 1984. She shops at Home Depot and can thread a needle without glasses. She recently shortened a pair of her son's trousers.
And Freiband's good genes extend to four siblings. She has sisters who are ages 97 and 93, and brothers 91 and 84.
"We're on a streak," the Brooklyn, N.Y., native said recently as she sat on a balcony overlooking her tidy garden. "I don't really know why. There's nothing really that special about us."
That's highly debatable.
"I say to myself every day, 'Tomorrow something wonderful is going to happen to me,' " Freiband said, her eyes bright under blue eye shadow. "And it does. I've had a wonderful life."
Of course there have been disappointments, because "nothing is perfect in this life." Her husband of 40 years, for example, a psychiatric social worker named Carl Freiband, died in 1981. "I've had a whole life since then," she said.
It's how you take what life dishes out that counts, Freiband said. "I'm not negative at all," she said. "Being positive is such an important part of being a whole person."
After moving to Arlington in her 70s, Freiband worked for 14 years as a first- and second-grade tutor at Abingdon Elementary School. She worked for most of her life, starting out as a legal secretary on Wall Street after learning typing and shorthand after high school.
"My boss took me to the places Wall Street people would go," Freiband recalled. "I didn't even know how to order. He taught me how to go into a restaurant, order and eat." She also worked for the county clerk's office in San Rafael, Calif.
Freiband still lives a full life. She gave up driving at the age of 94 after suffering a blown tire. "God said, 'Peggy, no more driving for you,' " she said. She no longer goes out alone, but she ventures out regularly with family and friends, going to the theater, to the opera and to restaurants.
One recent weekend, she attended a progressive dinner with her son, Michael, 63, stopping at different homes for appetizer, entree and dessert. "He includes me in everything," she said. "His friends treat me like a friend, too. I'm so lucky that way."
She has many favored restaurants of various types and ethnicities, including Mexican. "I have a very sophisticated palate now and like food that is well prepared and nicely presented on the plate," she said. At home, she watches "Masterpiece Theatre" and old movies.
After doing a few stretching exercises every morning to stay limber, Freiband starts her day by reading the newspaper -- without glasses -- over a breakfast that usually consists of cold cereal, a biscuit, a cup of coffee and some orange juice. Sometimes she'll have a bagel or cook an omelet. Later in the day, she occasionally treats herself to a glass of cream sherry or port.
"I love port," she explained. "Every once in a while, I say, 'Peggy, have some port.' "
"Eat what you love is my theory," Freiband said. "Just don't overdo it. Everything in moderation."
Her daughter, Susan, 65, is moving to the Washington area from Puerto Rico, so Freiband is helping her search for a nearby apartment. She'd like her to live close by, in case the younger woman "might need some help."
Asked if she isn't the person who might need help, Freiband replied: "I'm a giver. If I have something, I want to give it to you."
Freiband said she doesn't have many female friends locally because she was already in her 70s when she moved to Arlington, and everyone "my age already had their friends. It's not easy making girlfriends at that age."
But recently, she and neighbor Debi Deimling, 53, became friends by accident.
Deimling was at Home Depot when she saw Freiband, who was there with her son, looking at flowers for her garden.
"I have a passion for gardening," Deimling said, "so I wanted to help her." She soon was mulching Freiband's yard, planting flowers and generally sprucing up the garden.
"She made me a cheese sandwich and a salad, though, and brought me a bowl of fruit, too, to give me energy," Deimling said, calling the older woman "a mentor and a motivator for me."
The two have gone out to dinner in Shirlington and like to spend time talking or puttering in Freiband's garden.
"I have everything I want," Freiband said. "Every day when I open my eyes, I just say thank you."
Her senses of appreciation and enjoyment rarely falter.
"I'm ready for anything," the near-centenarian said. "I'm not afraid to die. But in the meantime, I'm living it up like crazy."
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