“I thank the Lord, and I can’t thank y’all enough for everything you’ve done for me,” said the gracious, white-haired Cameron, addressing her children, other relatives and friends who gathered to honor her in an activity room at Pinehurst Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center on a Saturday morning.
“She goes to exercise class for a whole hour, twice a week,” said granddaughter Abby Cameron, 46, who lives in Raleigh and is the daughter of 77-year-old Thomas Cameron, the guest-of-honor’s firstborn. “That’s more than I do. She’s the most remarkable woman I’ve ever known. Her daily walk with the Lord has taught me a lot about living.”
Thelma Cameron, appearing calm and peaceful, sat quietly in a wheelchair, as guests arrived.
“We’re glad to have you, Hon,” she said to her great-grandson Bryce Owen, 11, son of Martha and Johnny Owen of Carthage. “You’re a sweet boy; we’re glad you could come.”
Along with other relatives, Cameron’s four living children and their spouses surrounded her: Thomas, 77, and Daisy Cameron of Carthage; Clara Lee Cameron Privott and John Privott of Rocky Mount: Lucille Cameron Cameron (her spouse’s last name is also “Cameron”) and Elton Cameron of Sanford; and Mac, 62, and Brenda Cameron of Carthage. One son, Warren Cameron, died in 1993.
“She was extra good to me,” said Mac Cameron, the baby of the family and the tallest of the children.
“That’s why he’s bigger than the rest of us,” Thomas said, grinning.
Mac and Thomas still attend White Hill Presbyterian Church, the church they attended as children.
“It’s on the Moore and Lee County line, near Sanford,” Thomas said.
After the group sang “Happy Birthday” to the Cameron matriarch, Thomas asked a blessing on the food and the occasion. He began by praying, “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this good mother….”
Remembering Early Years
Thelma Theo Dunlap Cameron, born February 7, 1903, “at home, above Robbins,” reminisces in an interview, a few days after her birthday:
“I went to church all my life; they carried me in a buggy,” Cameron says. She laughs and shifts a bit in her wheelchair. “I had two sisters. My parents were farmers. We walked about three miles to a school out in the country, up above Robbins.”
She tells about a news making event.
“I know you remember hearing people talk about the Titanic,” she says. “Everybody was scared the world was coming to an end, back then. Of course, I wasn’t but about eight or nine years old and didn’t pay much attention to it. But still, I heard a lot about it.”
She recalls accepting the Lord at church at about age 16.
“I attended Bascome’s Chapel — it was a Methodist church — when I was young. You know, the Methodist usually just sprinkle, but I was baptized in Bear Creek. We had a good old preacher, a mighty good old man, and he talked to the young people a lot.”
Cameron says she, as a young lady, once canvassed her community and collected money for her church.
“I finished high school at Sandhills Farm Life School,” she says. “My husband (to be) was waiting for me to get out of school so we could get married. I had worked while I was going to school.”
Thomas Cameron says his mother took some nursing training during her high school years and beyond, working at James McConnell Hospital in the Farm Life School area.
“There was a small hospital there,” Mrs. Cameron says. “I had to go over to see the nurse, because I had some boils on my hands. She wanted me to come to work at the hospital, so I worked there at James McConnell Hospital for three years. James McConnell was the first boy from Moore County who was killed in the first World War.”
Cameron says she wanted to attend college but had no money and her husband-to-be wanted her to marry.
“I was 22 when I married Alexander Hamilton Cameron,” she says. “He was from Carthage. I was 22 and he was 24. He was a wonderful, fine man — always so good to me.”
She spent her married life as a housewife. Her husband worked for DOT, the N.C. Department of Transportation, for 32 years and “didn’t farm (tobacco, corn, and cotton) too much after he went to work for the state.”
Cameron recalls only one major illness.
“I had appendicitis when I was 20 years old,” she says. I’ve been blessed, and I’m thankful to the Lord. I can’t remember too many regrets. Of course, everybody has some.”
Cameron saw her son Thomas go off to the Army and spend time in Germany, Austria and France (1945-46), serving in one conflict before World War II ended. Her son Warren served in Korea. She attended White Hills Presbyterian Church until she entered the Pinehurst nursing center six years ago.
“I fell and broke a hip; that’s the reason I’m sitting here and can’t walk on my walker,” she says. “I’m doing very well in this home. I’m able to go to different things here in the activity room. I take exercise on Monday morning. I enjoy that.
“I’m just thankful for a good Christian life I’ve been able to try to live. As I said, I can’t understand why I’m here this long — over a hundred years —but we never know what God’s got in mind for us. I never thought of living to be the age I am, but the Lord knows best. I’m mighty thankful.
“I can’t see or hear as well as I would like to, but I go on anyway. I do the best I can and thank the Lord every day.”
What advice does she offer younger people?
“Keep busy, that’s what I say,” Cameron advises. “There’s no need to worry. Just take it to the Lord and leave it there. Just be as good a Christian as you can be, and do what the Lord would have you to do. That’s about all I could say. Try to live like God would want you to live, always being kind one to another; and just do unto others as you would wish to be done unto. The Lord bless you.”
Steve Crain may be reached at crain207@earthlink.net.
