THOMASVILLE — A Thomasville woman and her daughter have been together for many, many years — many more than most mothers and daughters.

Hettie Akridge Park finally got around to observing her 103rd birthday Friday, almost a month after the actual date. She has been busy and out of town.

Her daughter, Gwen Park Kelly, is six months away from octogenarian status.

The two live together. Their mutual love and admiration is evident.

“We don’t argue or anything,” Kelly explained. “You don’t argue with your mother.”

Park was born April 18, 1905, in Mitchell County. Her father died when she was 18 months old, her mother when she was 15.

“The county had a meeting, because Mama didn’t have a will,” Park said.

A man said he would take Park and her five siblings, all under 20, if the state would pay him $75 a month.

“I said, ‘I wouldn’t live with you if you paid me $75 a month!’ “ Park recalled.

The children’s oldest sister raised the parentless family. They considered her their mother.

Things were not too bad. Park’s mother had taught her offspring “how to behave and do things.” Her mother taught her how to sew and stitch when she was 12.

On Thursday morning, Park was seated on a sofa in the living room of her home. Her fingers were at work knitting a large, colorful Christmas stocking.

“I think I’ve made about a thousand and given them to people,” Park explained. Santa’s soft, fuzzy beard was knitted from white angora yarn.

Kelly said that when her mother is not playing bridge, she is knitting. Park also plays word games and is an Atlanta Braves fan.

She was playing bridge four times a week until her daughter cut out a day. Kelly teaches a Sunday School class at First Baptist Church and needed Saturday, a bridge day, to prepare her lesson for the next day. “I was very selfish,” Kelley explained. “I needed my Saturdays.