Amelia Gilliam knows what it’s like to live in three different centuries.

“Mollie,” as she prefers to be called, celebrated her 104th birthday Sept. 30 in the Health Manor Skilled Nursing Facility at Ventura Estates Retirement and Healthcare Center in Newbury Park, Calif. She was born in Minden, Neb., on that same date in 1899 as Amelia Rosalie Kolby.

For a lady who was born in the 19th century and is continuing well into the 21st, Mollie has witnessed vast and sweeping changes in her lifetime. She attended San Fernando Academy before graduating from nursing school at Glendale Hospital in 1919.

The next year, Mollie got a job at the Veteran’s Hospital in Walla Walla, Wash. There she met Clifford Ashton Ward, a tuberculosis patient on her unit. They got married in 1923 and moved back to Southern California.

In 1927, son Robert was born, and two years later, Clifford passed away from a recurrence of tuberculosis. After his death, Mollie went to work for the Los Angeles County Hospital System. She devoted 20 years of her career as a TB nurse at Olive View Sanitorium in San Fernando.

In 1944, the U.S. Army put out a call for nurses. Mollie left the hospital and joined the Army Nurse Corps. She was assigned to Camp Hahn, across the street from March Air Force Base in Riverside County. While there, Mollie met an Army private named Luther Olin Gilliam, and they were married in 1945.

The next year, she and Luther moved to Seattle, Wash., his home town. When he retired, they moved to Palm Desert, Calif., and bought a home on Iowa Street. They lived happily there until Luther passed away in 1980.

After that, Mollie decided to move to Ventura Estates. That was Dec. 17, 1980, and she’s been there ever since. According to her son, Robert, Mollie “is very thankful to have a warm, loving environment” in which to spend her final years.

At 104, Mollie’s mind is still bright and alert, and she still enjoys the humor in everyday life. When the staff presented her with a birthday card that read, “Happy Birthday to one of best-looking members of the group!” on the cover, and “However, this group being what it is, don’t pack for Hollywood yet,” on the inside, Mollie cracked a big smile and laughed.

How did she manage to live so long? Robert answers for her: “Inhale, exhale,” he says. “Repeat. Keep it up.”

There’s more to it than just breathing, of course. Eileen Hartman, activity director at the Manor, says Mollie is a very active participant in cooking classes, daily exercise workouts, memory stimulation activities, church services and other pro-grams. “She keeps us all on our toes,” Ms. Hartman asserts. “We love her so much; she’s a wonderful human being and, like all our other residents, we consider her a part of our family.”