So many people enjoy Split Rock Lighthouse and the park there. Count Merle, Maxine, and Pat among them.

They are the three surviving siblings from the Chartier family from Cloquet.

Merle is 106. Maxine is 98. And Pat is 92.

They look and sound decades younger, and really like getting together each summer for a hike up the shore here. Merle now lives in Alaska for much of the year. Maxine is in South Carolina, and Pat is in Cloquet.

WDIO caught up with them last week during their walk down to the water. “It’s wonderful we can still do this,” Pat shared with us.

They took us down memory lane a bit. When she was young, Merle headed out on a road trip out to California during WWII to work in an airplane factory.

Once she was back home again, she got married and had three kids. Her husband died when those children were young. And then she also managed the bar he owned called The Hub.

It was difficult, but she made it through. They were raised during tough times, with the Great Depression. But their parents worked hard to make sure they didn’t go to bed hungry.

Maxine shared with us what it was like getting a driver’s license. “I went in there and said, I’d like to have a driver’s license. He said, can you drive? I said yes, sir. And it was 25 cents.”

She still drives, and has the drive to survive. “I’ve survived cancer two times, and last January, I fell and hit my head and had a brain bleed,” Maxine explained.

Pat also survived cancer, including a very deadly one. “They gave me three weeks to live, if I didn’t get treatment,” she told us. The treatment is working, and she feels good! Now she’s awaiting her 22nd great-grandchild.

They do enjoy some of the technology that’s available now, like the iPad and Apple watch.

Their families have grown by leaps and bounds.

When we asked what the key is to a long life, Merle laughed and said, “We weren’t drinkers.” Except for some brandy Manhattans, and some wine, of course.

Maxine is already planning her 100th birthday in Savannah, Georgia.

Merle said the secret lies in this saying, “Keep on, keep on.”