LEWISTON – Like the other students, Antoinette Gagne was working on her quilt Thursday night in her adult education class at Lewiston High.

One fact set her apart.

Gagne is Lewiston’s oldest student. She’s 96. “I’ll be 97 on April 30,” she said with a grin.

“She’s the oldest student right now,” said Eva Giles, community education coordinator for Lewiston Adult Education. “She’s not the oldest we’ve ever had.” Another woman who took quilting last year was 99, Giles said.

Betty Gundersdorf, director of adult education, called Gagne “an extraordinary student.” Gagne illustrates that “learning extends through the lifespan.”

Gagne comes across as an optimistic person, frequently smiling. Her secret of youth is staying busy. She advises “not to stop … I didn’t stop.”

She sews, knits, does needlepoint and crochets. She began sewing her own clothes at age 6. “I love to do that. It’s my life,” she said. “I like to sew. I’m like a drunk.”

She said she never wanted growing old to mean sitting “on a chair all day long and get sorry for myself.”

Gagne’s memory and health are good, she said. She has a heart condition and is a diabetic. “She beat both of them,” said her son, Marcel Gagne. “She treated it with medication and dieting. She followed the doctor’s orders. Then she stayed active.”

“My doctor said, ‘I’m going to keep you until 100,'” she said with a laugh.

As she spoke, she was wearing a trim black jacket and skirt, a white blouse and pearls. She doesn’t leave the house unless in a dress or skirt, she said.

Gagne doesn’t use a walker and gets around by herself. She uses a cane at night to ensure she doesn’t fall. She doesn’t walk far, but still goes shopping for material. Her eyesight and hearing are good. “I’m the one with a hearing aid,” her son, 61, said.

Throughout her life she didn’t drink or smoke. She doesn’t eat junk food, just food made from scratch. Those habits helped her live long and happy, she said.

“The only thing I regret is not to go to school to learn English good,” Gagne said. Raised speaking French, she learned English when her children were in school. They taught her English at night.

Gagne was born in Canada and moved to Rumford with her family when she was 12. She worked in the Rumford paper mill until she was 33, when she married and moved to Lewiston.

She and her husband, Dominique, raised two sons and a daughter. When her children were older, she worked in a dress shop, then a shoe shop. She retired at 65. After her husband died in 2002, she moved in with her daughter, Rachelle Cyr.

In her 90 years of sewing she made not only her clothes, but clothes for her husband and children. “We didn’t have any store-bought clothes until high school,” her son said.

In addition to sewing, Gagne knits for her great-grandchildren and children of the Longley Elementary School. Since 2002, she’s knitted and given away about 700 pairs of mittens, she said.

In addition to her three children, Gagne has six grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and another who died. Growing up, she was the second oldest of eight. She survived them all.

She enrolled in the adult education class at Lewiston High because her other son, Rene, is getting married. She wanted to make him a quilt. She knows how to make quilts by hand, “but I wanted to come to learn the latest method … And I wanted to get out of the house.”

Marcel Gagne said his mother is an inspiration. Other seniors should consider adult education to combat winter’s cabin fever and loneliness.

“If you can get out here, you’ll enjoy yourself and do something,” said Marcel, a custodian at Lewiston High. “There’s all kinds of different programs: art classes, ceramic classes, woodworking. I’ve seen ladies in the welding shop. There’s always something you can learn.”

Gagne described taking her quilting class as “a pleasure. I enjoy every minute of it.”

People in the class enjoyed her back, teacher Beth Derenburger said. “She even gave me some French cooking lessons last week: pea soup and pork pies.” Derenburger said Gagne is “regal,” and sets an encouraging example for those who are aging. “We’ve all got a lot to look forward to.”

Gagne said she may take another class “next year, if I can move around.”

What will she do now that her quilt is finished?

“I’ve got two more started.”