MORGANTOWN — It’s not something many can fathom, but Vera Bullen made it a reality — 109 cakes, 109 times singing “Happy Birthday,” 109 years.
On Wednesday April 18, Bullen celebrated her 109th birthday, at Mapleshire Nursing and Rehab Center. Friends, family and staff gathered to celebrate Vera’s big day. Gov. Jim Justice and Sen. Joe Manchin both recognized it, too. Both politicians sent her letters commemorating the day. Bullen is now said to be the oldest person in West Virginia.
Bullen never had any children of her own, but she was blessed with a big family nonetheless.
Lloyd Cannon and his wife, Jeanette, came to celebrate the day.
Lloyd’s dad was one of Bullen’s brothers.
He said his Aunt Vera hailed from Plaquemines Parish, La., just south of New Orleans. It’s now underwater because when the flood control was built, engineers had to flood certain lands.
Unfortunately, hers was one of them.
Vera moved to southern California in the late 1930s — settling in just outside Los Angeles. Lloyd and his family were the last of the Cannons to go to California, and he said his Aunt Vera was instrumental in that transition.
“She lived in an area of L.A. that was in an unincorporated part of the county, and she lived on a very long, deep lot with lots of fruit trees, and we used to love visiting her,” he said. “We could feast on the fruit from the trees, from the vines.”
Jeanette recalled an avocado tree that was right outside Vera’s bedroom window. She said Vera and her late husband, Willard, would pull them down and give them to people.
Lloyd said they were a nuisance to him. He was never fond of avocados, but Jeanette absolutely loves them.
“When they fall from 30 or 40 feet up, they can be a problem,” he joked.
Vera would spend a lot of time tending to her plants. Lloyd said it could be wicked hot outside and she would be in her bonnet, tending to the pepper plants. Everyone else would be inside, staying cool.
“Her yard was beautiful, and her house was immaculate, too,” Jeanette said.
Lloyd said Vera was always taking care of foster children, and there were quite a few who came through her house. Reggie, was her “son,” but Lloyd said he never really understood how that worked. Back then, not everyone had legal adoptions, and if youngsters needed to be taken care of, she would just take care of them.
“We just grab people in our family and just absorb them,” Lloyd said.
Vera was always having people over, making them dinner and sewing for them.
Vera moved to Morgantown a little before she turned 100. Mary Ingram took care of her before Vera moved into Mapleshire. Lloyd said Ingram is also a part of their family. She ended up being very good friends with Vera.
On the Cannon side, there are seven nieces and nephews, but Vera is the last of her generation.
Lloyd said Vera started caring for people at a very young age. She took care of her siblings and called her brother John — Lloyd’s uncle — “baby John.” She took care of him because their mother was sickly, Lloyd said.
“I never really understood their devotion to her until after my father passed away last year, and I started researching stuff and I could see why he was so tied to his sister,” he said.
Lloyd said he never met his grandmother; she died in 1939. Vera was the fourth in a family of eight, and her younger brothers were very devoted to her.
“She’s special,” Lloyd said.
