PAN YUYING, 105

Self-reliance and hard work are the keys to a good life and longevity, Pan Yuying said. And so it seemed natural when she got a job as a waitress in a restaurant at age 99, serving food and tea to guests. She wasn't looking for fame, but she got it anyway. The job lifted the centenarian to celebrity status in Hezhou's Huangyao town.

Just about everyone knows her now. Tourists come to take pictures and eat. She still works in the restaurant, although she stopped serving about three years ago when it became too difficult. Now she cleans up.

Pan's industrious nature has been with her as long as she can remember. She always loved to work-for example, as a young woman in the 1930s, when she was a tailor. At that time, she made a good living from sewing.

Later, she had a daughter, her only child-leading to whispers that she should be pitied. In those days, many people, especially in rural areas, valued sons more than daughters, thinking they would grow up to support the family.

Speaking about the emphasis on sons, Pan was blunt: "I don't really care about it, actually. I know people try to make themselves feel better by nagging about others' pain."

She always walked her own path. Like many, she stepped in to raise her grandchildren when their parents sought work elsewhere and left them behind. She made an indelible mark on their character and passed along her values.

Her grandson, Lin Gongping, 57, who came to live with her at age 1, remembers and is grateful.

"My childhood is a happy memory. I was inspired by my grandmother, who said, 'We had better not be confined to secular ideas about happiness and shame. We should find out the truth by ourselves.'"

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