A Pennsylvania woman about to turn 100 has just welcomed her 100th great-grandchild into the world.
Marguerite Koller, 99, of Blue Bell, will be celebrating her 100th birthday in a few months.
But she was able to celebrate the occasion earlier this month with the birth of her 100th great-grandchild, Koller William, named after her late husband.
“I’m just thinking how lucky I am,” Marguerite said NBC Philadelphia because she was the newest addition to the family – which also includes 11 children and 56 grandchildren.
She does her best to attend every baptism and graduation, her family has said in the past, and “has created an amazing legacy that spans generations,” her granddaughter, Christine Balster, told the local news station.
However, that family almost never came, because Marguerite considered joining a monastery and becoming a nun.
Marguerite Koller, 99, beamed as she held her 100th great-grandchild earlier this month
Koller said she was lucky to have such a large family, as she had almost decided to join a local monastery and become a nun.
In addition to the 100 great-grandchildren, Koller has 11 children and 56 grandchildren
She applied to join the local monastery when she was still in high school, she said 6 ABC in 2015, but in the early 1940s she met William Koller of Manayunk, who she said had “talked me out of my head.”
The couple then welcomed their first child into the Baby Boom after World War II, when Marguerite knew she wanted a large family.
“I wanted to have a big family,” she told 6 ABC. “I think it’s hard to be an only child – it’s lonely.”
Originally, she said, “she thought I wanted 12, but when I started getting them I wasn’t sure I wanted that many.”
Instead, she settled on 11 children, born over the course of nearly 20 years.
They in turn gave her 56 grandchildren, who are now the parents of 100 great-grandchildren.
She has since credited that large family for keeping her active and making her feel blessed every holiday, even after her husband passed away in 2008.
“It worked out beautifully,” she said in 2015.
