Pennsylvania woman 'blessed' to meet 100th GREAT-GRANDCHILD months before turning 100
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: A 99-year-old woman had an unforgettable day recently as she got to meet her 100th great-grandchild. Marguerite "Peg" Koller will soon turn 100 but “felt blessed” to see baby Koller William Balster after he was born on August 4 to parents Christine Stokes Balster and Patrick Balster.
Speaking with ‘Good Morning America’, Christine said: “We went to grandmom's, introduced her to Koller, who was named after the family name. ...She was absolutely ecstatic. Limited words for sure. She was just so happy and felt so blessed and lucky to be holding him,” before noting, “You could feel the emotion and the gratitude and [she] just felt blessed again that she got to hold yet another great-grandbaby, and this one named after my grandfather.”
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As per reports, Marguerite is the mother of 11 children with 56 grandchildren, and now 100 great-grandchildren. The newborn’s proud mother revealed, “It was a race to 100. My cousin Colleen and I were just a day apart [for] our due dates, and she had the 99th great-grandchild, who is absolutely healthy and beautiful. So you know, just grateful, blessed to have another few babies joining this great family.”
Christine and Patrick are already parents to 22-month-old Griffin David Balster. Griffin’s name is a tribute to his late uncle, David Stokes, who died in 1990 due to brain cancer. After their second child’s birth, the couple wanted a meaningful name for him too.
Patrick explained, “We wanted to do like a name that was equally significant. I've always loved the name Cole. And Chris one day was like, 'Hey, how about Koller? This could be baby number 100 for great-grandmom.' We thought about Koller and we went for Koller William ... William Koller was her grandfather's name [Peg Koller's late husband, who died in 2008]. And then 'William' is also on my side of the family, I'm fourth-generation William, middle name. So we're like, it just made sense. It felt good.”
The new mother added, “I think each one of my mom's siblings -- she's one of 11 -- just felt that it was such an honor to my late grandfather and the family name. [It was] so much love, so much support immediately once we revealed what his name was, and even more special that he was the 100th great-grandchild. So the timing was just right.”
Besides, Christine shed light on her grandmother’s long life too, who will celebrate her milestone birthday in November. She claimed, “Faith and family really get her going. She is present no matter what is going on and however old she is. I mean she never misses a graduation, a baptism, a wedding, a book moment at grade school. Whatever it is, she's always there.”
Earlier, in 2015, Marguerite had told WPVI: “I figured I wanted 12 but after I started to have them, I wasn't sure I wanted that many. I wanted to have a big family. I think it's difficult being an only child - it's lonely.” Her grandson, Greg Stokes, added at the time, “She's really an inspiration. And to be the age she is and still going about it every day - it's unbelievable.”