One of Cary’s oldest residents died on the fourth of July. Mabel Riggan was 106. We ran a story about her on Aug. 9, 2006. Apparently there was a big hoopla over the story, but I missed it because I was working in another office at the time.

A coworker here was talking about her, so I pulled the old story out to read it. Former Cary News reporter Adam Linker had met with Mabel and her daughter, Jean Matthews, to talk about the changes they had seen in Cary over the years.

I love it when we run stories like that one. I wish the paper was full every week of old stories and history and families.

In 2006, Mabel was still living in a house that she and her husband Ben paid $1,800 for in the 1940s, back when Cary had only one paved road. Their first house in Cary had had an outhouse and no indoor plumbing.

Ben put up sheet rock and insulation and built new stairs. She said, “Back then men could do anything.” (Ha!) Before her marriage, Mabel attended East Carolina Teachers Training School in Greenville. Her husband worked for the railroad and then they opened a shoe repair shop in Raleigh.

When they moved to Cary, Mabel worked on the assembly line at the Taylor Biscuit Company, the largest employer in Cary at that time. They raised two daughters and sang in the choir at First Baptist Church of Cary.

Mabel was active in the church for many years and was its oldest member.

In 2006, at 105, she still lived alone and was getting around well enough to keep house, which is somewhat better than I’m doing at 47. She had only recently started taking blood pressure medicine — she didn’t like medicine much. “That stuff will kill you,” she said.

And her daughter took her to Burger King every Friday night. Mabel had the Whopper Jr.

Mabel lived in her house until May 2007, when she moved to Cary Health and Rehabilitation Center, said Matthews, who is 83 and also lives in Cary. “I went over there every day, just about,” Matthews said.

When Mabel died she left a sister, two daughters, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, five great-great grandchildren and many devoted friends. Her husband preceded her in death. Matthews said her mother also outlived seven brothers and sisters.

In the picture that came with Mabel’s obituary last week and also the picture that ran with the story in 2006, she looks much younger than the calendar said she was. And she looks happy.

“She said she didn’t get old till she was 102,” Matthews said. “She was happy and jolly. She liked people. She was as sweet as she can be.” I love people like Mabel. She bloomed where she was planted. I can only aspire to as much.