Sarasota resident celebrates 108th birthday

Correction: This article has been updated to correct Grace Riker's name.

Grace Riker has always been close with her mother, Ann.

In some ways, it was inevitable. Growing up with parents who managed a resort in Hawaii led to isolation in its own way. There was beauty — it’s Hawaii, after all — but people came and went at the hotel, rarely ever staying for long.

While Grace didn’t have many friends nearby at the time, she always had her mom.

That bond has changed but never wavered over the years. No matter the year, situation or state the pair have lived in, Ann and Grace have always been close. That closeness, as well as a touch of flamboyance and a love for parties and gatherings, has been what's united the pair. 

Which made it all the more welcome on March 14 when Brookdale Senior Living facility staff celebrated Ann Fischbeck's 108th birthday. The staff surprised Fischbeck with balloons and written messages of love and support from fellow residents. 

“There’s no other person in our family with this longevity, it’s unusual,” Grace said. ‘People ask her what’s the secret to her age and she always (beckons) them closer and says ‘It’s the gin that keeps me going’. 

Fischbeck was born in Oakland, Florida in 1914, to parents from Chicago. Her father liked fishing in Lake Apopka and the family often made trips to the Sunshine State where they stayed in their home in Highland Park.  

Travel was a feature of Ann’s childhood. Her father owned a paper company that had them visiting states across the country and the occasional trip to Europe. 

That love of travel stayed with Ann as she grew older and went on vacation to Hawaii. It was there she met her future husband John, something that Grace describes as a whirlwind romance.

“He asked her to marry him, he drove them out to Diamond Head Lighthouse and said ‘As long as this light shines, that will be my love for you.’”

They eventually married and settled in Hawaii. John worked as a manager at a hotel in Hawaii and the pair came to have three children. Grace remembers her parents dressing formally (with the occasional bit of lei flair) and meeting with guests in the hotel’s dining room almost every night. 

“She liked people, and felt comfortable meeting with them,” Grace said. 

History came in a flash with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The family was fortunately on vacation in Florida at the time. 

“They were told not to go back, the Army was taking over (the hospital),” Grace said. “They decided to stay in Florida.”

At that point Grace had been born and the family returned to Hawaii when she was five. She recalls her mom being an everpresent factor in her life at that time, someone who was always there for her and her siblings

“She lived quite a busy life but she was always here for us,” Grace said. “She was very hands on despite the many activities she was involved in.”

That included consistent picnics at local parks, trips to the aquarium and long drives in the family’s Cadillac convertible. John worked hard managing the hotel while Ann enjoyed caring for their three children. 

That closeness was something of a Fischbeck tradition. Ann was the youngest of three siblings when she was growing up and spent plenty of time with her own parents. 

Family dynamics changed and Ann moved to Sarasota after her husband’s death in 1985. She decided to join her daughter Grace — who now had two daughters of her own— and had her own condo to call home. That cycle of care continued when Ann became a bigger part of her granddaughter's lives. 

“We’d all take road trips together in the summer,” Grace said. 

Both she and Grace volunteered with the Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center Auxiliary services over the years. 

Ann joined the Brookdale Senior Living facility in 2019, and has had trouble hearing of late. While it may be occasionally difficult for some, Grace says she communicates quite well with her mother all the time. 

Ann has been an avid scrapbooker throughout her life, often accumulating photos and memories and making a presentation out of them. Grace visits her mother and takes out the scrapbooks for the both of them to pore over and reminisce. Sometimes Ann works on adult coloring books, which is something of a callback to her passion for painting earlier in her life. 

“She reads the newspaper every day, sometimes she cuts out things she likes,” Grace Riker said. 

Something that has carried through the Fischbeck generations is a love of parties — Ann’s mother loved them, she loves them, and Grace loves them as well.

“Her mother Grace (Mathers-Smith), who I was named after, was a very flamboyant and outgoing person,” Grace Riker said. “She loved to have parties, she was quite something. My mother spent a lot of time with her when she was younger and a lot of it rubbed off.”

For Ann’s 90th, she hosted a costume party where everyone had to dress as their “secret desire”. Some went as airline pilots and big game hunters, but Ann went to a costume dress to find a dress and accessories to dress up as her mother as a tribute to her family. 

As time has gone on, many of Ann Fischbeck’s friends and colleagues her age have passed away. But even still, Ann receives letters of comfort and cheer from her friend’s loved ones, children and grandchildren.

“She keeps up with family members and they send her cards and pictures, which has been nice,” Grace Riker said.