Centenarian’s Recipe for a Happy Life: Travel, Read, Eat

Navajo Times | Cindy Yurth
Lillian Lincheze Luján smiles as she gets a hug at her 100th birthday party Saturday.

Published November 25, 2018

TAOS, N.M. — How do you summarize a century of life? Here’s how Lillian Lincheze Luján did it at her 100th birthday party Saturday: “I traveled. I read. I ate. It’s been a wonderful life.”

That, of course, is leaving a whole lot of stuff out. Fortunately her family was there to fill in the gaps. The Armistice had just been signed and the country was celebrating the end of what it thought was “The War to end all Wars” when a baby girl was born at Big White Mesa in Western Agency to Charles Young and his wife.

For Young, who would later become a prominent community leader and Council delegate, she was the first daughter of many children he would have with several different women.

For Lillian’s mother, a member of the Hatathlie family who unfortunately is only remembered as “Charlie Young’s Wife,” the baby would be her last. It was a difficult birth, and shortly after mother and daughter were brought to her family in Coal Mine Canyon, Charlie Young’s Wife passed away.

Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the Navajo Times. Used with permission. All rights reserved.