— Photo from Barry Nelson 

Vera Brooks, a life member of the Westmere Fire Department Ladies’ Auxiliary, celebrated her 106th birthday on Oct. 4. Former neighbor and longtime family friend Barry Nelson, himself a Westmere volunteer firefighter, takes her to lunch every year for her birthday. This year, he said, she did not feel up to going out, so he brought her soup from the Capital City Diner, and the pair had a meal together at her Westmere home. “She’s 106,” Nelson said, “and she’s more on the ball than many people half her age. She’s an amazing woman.”