BROWNTOWN — Having lived in many spots and taught many kids, Donna Ditzenberger, a retired Monroe elementary school teacher ,came back home to the Browntown area recently, just in time to turn 100. 

Hitting the century mark this week, she has been inundated in her rural home with well-wishes from her grown former students, parents, and others she encountered teaching for over 17 years, and raising many of her kids in this area.

She even jokes about teaching again, now. And she could. Easily. She hasn’t lost a beat — an idea that becomes clear soon into a recent conversation at her home along Wis. 11 west of Monroe.

“She’s on the computer, the phone, she can do all of that,” said her daughter, Georgia, a neonatal nurse practitioner who recently came to live again with her mom after being in Oregon and living the van life for 15 months.

Donna, who said she was blessed to have her daughter living with her again, cites teaching children as helping keep her young in mind, body and heart. She started teaching in 1972 after going to what is now Northern Illinois University; and later getting her Master’s Degree. 

Not long after meeting her husband, her family moved north from their generational farmland in Hebron, Ill., and bought a farm in Browntown. She served in teaching roles from 1972 to 1989 in the area, including several years at Northside, Parkside and Abe Lincoln elementary schools. She also lived for a while in Mount Horeb.

“She was 16 when she went to get her teaching certificate, and 18 when she started teaching,” Georgia Ditzenberger said.

“I just taught the children the way I would want my children to be taught,” said Donna, sitting at her kitchen table recently reading many of those new centenarian birthday cards. “It’s not hard if you look at it that way.”

Throughout her teaching career, she said first grade was one of her favorite grades to teach because of the inspiration she’d get from the little learners.

“I really like to see a child say ‘I can read,’” Donna said. 

Donna has been widowed since 2002. She had five children with her lifelong love, George, to whom she was married for 56 years. 

She has spent a lot of time in recent months answering questions posed to her by a special website designed to tease out family stories and legacies. These days, she also keeps busy at home playing games with her daughter, and keeping in touch with her children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren. 

“That’s what I tell people: You have got to try to keep your mind young,” she said. “We play Yahtzee, we play scrabble — we try to have a good time.”