Eileen Wilkinson chats with New Yorkers from her home in Washington state.
What’s the best way to inherit a century’s worth of wisdom? Drop by 100-year-old Eileen Wilkinson’s makeshift office in New York City.
And just because she's older than the first computer, don't think she's not up-to-date with the latest technology.
The grandmother is offering her advice to New Yorkers from the comfort of her home in Washington state via a webcam. It's connected to a laptop that's set up in a cardboard booth in Manhattan's Upper East Side.
"It works both ways because I get great joy talking to them," she told CBS New York.
Wilkinson dishes out free advice with the help of her grandson, Mike Matthews, an adjunct social media professor at New York University. He organized the set-up three months ago.
“She absolutely gets a kick out of meeting New Yorkers because they’re so open about their lives,” Matthews said. “A friend of mine will say, ‘I spoke to your grandmother last night,’ and I’ll say, ‘I had no idea.’”
Among her words of advice, she told one stranger: "You can be anything you want. Don't complain about anything. You do something about it."
“She’s so wise,” a boy who spent a few minutes chatting with Grandma Wilkinson told CBS New York. “And she does not look 100. She looks like she’s in her late 80s.”
Wilkinson, who spent most of her life as a homemaker and mother, credits her longevity to a good, clean lifestyle. She'll turn 101 in January.
