Heading into her 105th year of life, Loyola University Chicago’s Sister Jean Dolores Bertha Schmidt has a simple goal.
“I still want to remain a happy person,” she said.
Sister Jean turns 105 on Wednesday, making her just 11 years younger than the oldest person alive.
Born in San Francisco on Aug. 21, 1919, Sister Jean has long been a celebrity on Loyola’s campus and skyrocketed to international fame during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament in 2018, when the Ramblers made it to the Final Four against all odds.
“I live that time over and over again, it was just so fun,” said Sister Jean, with joy and a touch of nostalgia in her voice.
“I love to think about what happened in the past because it gives me courage to keep going to the future,” said Sister Jean, of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
She’s now been interviewed by national and international news outlets, gotten her own bobblehead and thrown the ceremonial first pitch for numerous Cubs games.
But her life remains simple. The secrets to a long life, she said, are loving others and God, taking care of your mind and body, and interacting with young people.
“You have to be considerate of other people, and you have to keep talking to the youth wherever you’re working because their energy transfers easily to you,” Sister Jean said.
With the Democratic National Convention underway in Chicago this week, Sister Jean thinks back to the 1968 convention that was “almost a disaster.” She watched on TV while visiting her father in San Francisco as police battered and tear-gassed anti-Vietnam War protesters in Chicago, her home since 1961.
“We perhaps saw more on TV than if you stood by the park where they were protesting and everything,” she said. “I believe the city of Chicago is more prepared than ever. It feels more protected than ever.”
Anti-war protesters have surrounded the convention again this year, this time opposing the Israel-Hamas war. Protests on college campuses swept the nation in the spring, and though Loyola didn’t see an encampment for Palestinian support like other Chicago-area campuses, demonstrations took place outside Sister Jean’s office on the Rogers Park campus. She spoke to both Jewish and Palestinian students, giving them advice and discussing their experiences.
Looking back, she wishes she could have invited students on both sides for a calm discussion instead of watching the tense protests.
“It’s just like our racial problems,” she said. “Both of us have to get together. … It’s too bad we can’t have an open forum. We don’t know how each other feels. We’re trying to do our best.”
Going into her 105th year, Sister Jean is looking forward to her ongoing birthday celebrations and basketball season — hopefully including another NCAA tournament appearance. But at her age, death is on her mind, too.
“I’m scared of it, too, because we don’t know what it’s all about,” she said. “The unknown is what makes it hard. I just want to be remembered as a person who cares and a person who loves lots of people, loves her work, tries to bring peace.”