If you’ve been to the Solvang Festival Theatrr over the past 20-plus years, there’s a good chance Ruth Seeley gave you the event program.
She’s known as “Grandma Ruth” there and started volunteering when she was 80. In fact, she celebrated her 100th birthday at the theater a couple of years ago, and was given a sash that read “100 & Fabulous.”
Seeley was born in 1919 during the flu pandemic, and is staying strong during this second pandemic of her lifetime.
When she recently fell and fractured her hip and elbow, she was rushed to Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital for treatment. There she learned the extent of her injuries.
“After the fall, I couldn’t walk,” Seeley said. “To get back to normal, I needed surgery.”
She was transferred to the Cottage Center for Orthopedics at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where Dr. Michael Maguire, an orthopedic surgeon affiliated with Cottage Health, performed the surgery.
The surgery went smoothly, and Seeley received physical therapy for the three days she was in the hospital. She progressed so well she was then able to return home.
“Everybody at Cottage was wonderful to me,” Seeley said. “I have no pain, and I’m completely healed, and I’m still going places and enjoying life.”