The first thing you notice about Elsa Metting are her beautiful blue eyes. As you get to know Metting, you realize she is in the midst of a great adventure she calls life and having a grand time. And having recently celebrated her 90th birthday Aug. 7, she has made no plans to slow down.

The Liberty Lake resident still plays golf and lives an active life. 

"We all admire Elsa for her spirit and competitive attitude," fellow golfer Patsy Lynn said. 

The roots of her still-active lifestyle date back to her earliest years. Born to Finnish immigrants in the small town of Poland, Ohio, she is the second youngest of eight siblings. 

"I had four older brothers, and I always wanted to keep up with them," she recalls. "They made me competitive. The first things I learned were how not to cry and how to lose."  

Metting played a little bit of everything. Her first love was figure skating.  "Everybody went skating in the winter, so I did, too," she said. "I grew up playing ice hockey. We had ice all winter long. When it froze, it stayed frozen."  

For a time, Metting belonged to a small figure skating club in Akron, Ohio, while her husband was a medical intern. The club was led by an instructor who worked with Olympic skaters in the 1950s.

While Metting would have enjoyed turning her love of sports into a career, "it was cheapest to go into nursing."  

Metting went through nursing school in Youngstown, Ohio, near the end of World War II and became a cadet nurse. 

"We signed up and were transferred to army hospitals," she said.   

Her journey took her to Crile Hospital in Cleveland, where she met her husband, Frank Metting, a serviceman who served stateside during the war.  

Metting recalls how she met her husband: "He worked in special services, and I played softball.  He was refereeing a game."

It was another two years before she would hear from him again. Metting was sent to a veteran's hospital in Virginia, and Frank had to track her down.  

"He wrote to me, and the next time I saw him in (1947), that was it," she recalled. "I just knew if I married anyone, his name would be Frank."

The couple married in 1948.  

"I loved his intelligence, and he was very good looking," she said. 

Early in their married life, Frank was part of a MASH unit in the Korean War. He was one of only six out of 206 that made it out alive from his unit. Metting recalls gratefully that Frank made it home with only a minor injury. Their first child, Frank Blaine Metting Jr., was born on Frank's way home.

Not long after the birth of their second child, Glynis, Metting and her family moved to Saudi Arabia when Frank took a job as a doctor. He eventually became medical director for an oil company.  They lived there for five years.  

Her favorite part of living overseas was meeting "very interesting people."

Metting remembers her husband taking care of an emir of an eastern province.  Later, he took them out to his oasis to meet his friends. 

"It is the only time I got to meet Saudi women," Metting recalled. "They were his wives."

While abroad, the couple took golf lessons.  

"It was so hot, we decided to bowl," she said. "They had to paint the golf balls red so you could find them in the sand - you golfed in the sand."

Metting also recollected the first Palestinian-Israeli uprising in 1956. 

"Frank came home and told me to pack one bag," she said. "We were on alert." 

While in Saudi Arabia, the Metting family took time to travel to places such as Istanbul, Rome, Capri, Majorca, Madrid, Athens and many other destinations.  

Metting's favorite place to visit was Finland - perhaps it was a bit of a homecoming.  "I met relatives I didn't even know I had," she said.

The family stayed with Metting's cousin, Velma.  They spent two weeks relaxing and meeting family.  

"It was a huge villa sitting on a lake," she said. "We liked to sit in the sauna and then run into the lake."  

So how did Elsa Metting ever end up in the Inland Northwest? After time spent in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where she represented the state in a national bowling competition, Frank took a job as medical director for Kaiser Aluminum. The Mettings spent 14 years on Spokane's South Hill. Metting returned to nursing at Deaconess.  

"It was the longest place I ever lived."

But Frank's job took them back to Ohio, and after his death in 1986, Metting stayed in Ohio because of family and golf. 

"That's where we started golfing," she said. "There was nothing else to do. … The golf is very good in northwest Ohio." 

Her love for golf even took her to England, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia to play.  

Since her children and grandchildren were all in Washington State, Metting made the move to Liberty Lake in 2001. Her eyes sparkle when she talks of all the family dinners and get-togethers and their "running game of Hearts."  

She remembers fondly her 80th birthday.  

"I warned everyone two years in advance to make sure they made it," she said. "We had 65 for dinner. Twenty-five flew and stayed for a week. It was great!"  

For her 90th birthday, her friends at the golf club surprised her after a tournament.  She still shakes her head remembering that nearly every golfer stayed for the party. 

"I've never been so surprised," she said. "Everyone was there!"

It's not hard to understand why so many people wanted to celebrate Metting's special day.  

"She doesn't complain about her game or moan over a bad shot," Lynn said. "And she is always excited to play well and enjoys golf and the ladies - which at 90 is very encouraging to the rest of us!"

Most people do seem surprised that a woman of 90 is so active, but as her grandson, Beau, will tell you, "Part of it is her genetic make-up, but she survives because she's optimistic and keeps moving. She tries to act with integrity and admit when she's wrong."

Lynn would agree: "We all admire her ‘can do' personality."

But Metting has a different take. 

"I've been very lucky," she said.  

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