Pearl Ahlstrom celebrates 95th birthday

2-27-2020

Manti—Can you believe it; Pearl Ahlstrom of Manti, turned 95 on Feb. 26 this year.

Pearls says she can’t hear anymore and she can’t see worth a darn; they took the car keys away so she can’t drive anymore; but at 95 years old, she still lives in her own house in Manti, where she does her own housework and gets along just fine.

“My health is very good,” she says. “The Lord has blessed me.”

Pearl has always loved to tell jokes; and she still knows dozens of them. With her wit still sharp as a needle, she can’t resist recounting one of her favorites (it’s not appropriate for the newspaper, she says).

“I went into the doctor’s office and said, ‘Doctor, You’ve got to help me; I’m shrinking.’ Is that so, the doctor replied, ‘Well, I’ll try to squeeze you in.’”

Know by all her friends as “Granny,” Pearl’s door is always open and her cookie jar full, says her daughter-in-law Jo Ann Holder, who hosted an open-house birthday party for Granny and friends.

Besides learning jokes from her mother at an early age, Pearl learned to sew at age 11 and became a talented seamstress.

She was born in Lewiston, Montana in 1925. She, along with her four sisters and one brother, were brought up in Harlowton, Montana. Pearl had two children, Vivian (Dave) and Rusty (Jo Ann).

She married Charles Ahlstrom in 1982. After serving a mission in Hawaii, they moved to Manti.

Pearl worked at the Temple and used her sewing talents to create clothes for missionaries, temple workers, children and brides’ dresses too.