Fairmont resident Midlred Brodt is well known for her many contributions to the community over the years. Now the community will have a chance to celebrate her extraordinary life and accomplishments as she looks back on 100 years of making the most out of each moment.

A Nebraska native, Brodt is all too happy to share what she believes to be the secret of her longevity.

“If something bad happens to you, find a different route,” Brodt said. “Keep going and find something fun to do. Just go on, have fun, and enjoy life.”

Enjoying life is exactly what she did, as she decided to enlist for World War II, joining the Women’s Army Corps in 1943.

From there would serve her country in a variety of roles. Eventually she would marry Warren Brodt, which resulted in her move to Minnesota.

“We met in Washington, D.C.,” she shared. “I was working there for the National Security Agency, and that was just being formed. It was a very secret agency, so everyone we hired had to be cleared by their hometown and you had to do a lot of work to get these people, because you didn’t want anyone who had done any naughty things.

“So he (Warren) was there for the inauguration of Eisenhower, and the girl that worked with me met him at an art show. She came to me the next day and told me I had to meet him. We did a lot of things in Washington and went to the inauguration of Eisenhower together and went to the ball in the evening.”

The couple eventually married in August 1965 and she moved to Fairmont, where she would continue her busy lifestyle. Helping her husband on the Brodt farm, she soon found additional work in Fairmont in 1965.

“I worked at the Day Activity Center with handicapped children, and then I started the first class in Fairmont Schools for handicapped students,” she said. “I remember I had to take them at lunch and be with them at lunch and on the playground because the other kids would tease them, and you had to calm things down.”

After her work days, Brodt recalled coming home to “relax” by working with Warren on the farm.

Her hard work and dedication to her students would be recognized in 1980, when she was honored as Fairmont teacher of the year.

The couple took to traveling in later years before Warren passed away in July 2001, but Mildred would follow her own advice and continue to move forward.

“I’ve been in every continent but South America,” she said. “China Egypt, all the European countries, but didn’t get to go to South America. I wanted to go, but my nieces and their husbands said, ‘Let’s go to Rome.’ So we went on a cruise around Italy.

“That was great fun, and then we got back to Rome and got to go under the Vatican in the catacombs. There, even I couldn’t walk through, I had to go in sideways because it was so narrow. It was a wonderful experience.”

Along with many other locations, she would visit Australia in 2004, Egypt in 2006 and, in 2007, China, where she would celebrate her 89th birthday in Shanghai.

“In that many places, if you don’t laugh and get acquainted with people you can become pretty isolated, and that’s not good,” she said.

While making the most of every experience, one of her particularly favorite travel memories comes from her earlier years, when she climbed Mount Fuji, Japan, in 1946.

“We started at 9 p.m. because it’s so sunny and you’d get sunburned if you went during the day,” she said. “As we climbed, I ended up with another fellow and we rented a blanket at about 3 a.m. and we slept in one of the little shacks along with 60 other people. Then we got to the top as the sun was coming up, and it was just impressive.

“We had so much fun doing it, and it was so interesting. It was one of the highlights of my life.”

But the lifetime of traveling wasn’t enough to satisfy her. Brodt enjoys people, and consequently took on membership and leadership responsibilities in many local organizations, including the American Association of University Women, Fraser Community Chest, Martin County Historical Society, STEP Inc., First Congregational United Church of Christ and many others. She also volunteered at Heritage Acres, the Martin County Historical Society and Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center.

What does a common day look like for Brodt now?

“At this age, all you can do is get up in the morning, eat your three meals, and I do quite a lot of reading,” she said.

Brodt went on to share that she is currently reading “Old Jules” about a pioneer homesteading in Nebraska, her home state.

“I enjoy non-fiction more than fiction, and I just finished a book about World War II and, of course, I could connect with so much of that,” she said.

Brodt loves her life on the farm. When asked by friends to move into Fairmont before next winter, she simply laughed and replied, “No thank you.”