Angela Bergeson
My name is Angela Bergeson.
Charlotte Williams
My name is Charlotte Williams. I'm 97 and a half years old.
Angela Bergeson
She is my mother. I am her daughter.
Charlotte Williams
I met your dad, Jesse, at my grandfather's funeral. I was engaged to a former member of the service, and after a couple of weeks, I decided he was not the right one for me, but I didn't really break up with him until after I had met Jesse.
Charlotte Williams
And when we met, he was standing with his parents by the grave of my grandfather. He was just home two weeks from being in the occupation forces in Japan, and so he had on brand new clothes. He really looked swift.
Charlotte Williams
I didn't say anything, and he didn't say anything, and his dad said, "Well, introduce yourself." And he introduced himself, and I was kind of flustered. He was very good looking. I said "I'm Charlotte Carver, and I'm his grandfather," so everybody laughed, and I finally got it right after three times.
Angela Bergeson
So that's how you met the love of your life.
Charlotte Williams
And I had wanted all my life to be married in the temple, and I loved that Jesse had the same feeling. There were only, at that time, seven temples in the world. We had it all planned out to be married in the Idaho Falls temple. He left early, and I went alone on a Greyhound bus cross country.
Angela Bergeson
From Atlanta, Georgia to Idaho Falls. I know you think about him a lot.
Charlotte Williams
I do.
Angela Bergeson
He passed away just almost exactly two years ago. How many years were you married?
Charlotte Williams
Seventy-five.
Angela Bergeson
And how in the world do two people figure out how to be together for 75 years?
Charlotte Williams
It's forgiveness. We didn't always have the same ideas, but we always were able to compromise. There were times when we were not happy with each other, but we had a dream that life is eternal, and that we're going to be together, and we just never gave it up.
Angela Bergeson
The church was important to you, and I think we all grew up just loving that too. Another thing that I really appreciate about you, is you've always had a love of learning. You're going to be 98 soon, maybe you're going to make it to 100.
Sometimes you stay up all night till three in the morning, reading a book or learning something on the iPad.
Charlotte Williams
That's true. As the children all left home, I felt really sad, and I remember crying and telling my husband, "Why didn't we have another one?" And he said, "Well, that one would have left home too."
So I found something that I learned to love, and that was art.
Angela Bergeson
And so, how old were you at this time?
Charlotte Williams
I was about 55 I think. So I said, "Well, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to find the best teacher I can." I contacted the head of the art department at Georgia State University, studied with him for about eight years.
I had a hairdresser in Atlanta who loved my art and she had about 20 of my paintings to fill up the shop, but she never charged me for that whole 10 years.
I sold a few. Most of them I gave away. I just found that I had a gift. I didn't feel very gifted until I did that. It made my life happier, and I loved being a mother, and I loved life, and I think maybe that's part of why I'm still living.
