Bride Asks Her 100-Year-Old Grandmother to Be Flower Girl in Her Wedding: 'She's a Rockstar'
Centenarian Ruthie Klatte received a round of applause after her walk down the aisle wearing a floral-print jacket and a flower corsage on her wrist
When it came time for bride Jillian Klatte to choose a flower girl for her wedding, she already had the perfect person in mind for the role: her gardening-loving, 100-year-old grandmother.
Jillian grew up watching her grandmother, Ruthie Klatte, lovingly tend her garden filled with colorful blooms from zinnias to roses, according to local TV station KARE 11. So when Jillian was getting ready to select floral arrangements for her upcoming wedding, the idea suddenly occurred to her that Ruthie would be the perfect choice.
"She's been a role model to me my whole life. She's never stopped being a role model. So I just said, I want my grandma to do it," Jillian explained of her grandmother.
When Jillian and her now-husband Elijah tied the knot on Oct. 14 atop the IDS Tower in Minneapolis, the centenarian proudly walked down the aisle carrying a basket of rose petals, which she playfully tossed. Fittingly, Ruthie wore a floral-print jacket over her dress and a flower corsage on her wrist.
Ruthie's adorable turn as flower girl earned her enthusiastic applause from Jillian and Elijah's guests. After the ceremony, grandmother and granddaughter celebrated the moment and posed for photos together.
"She's the rock in our whole family," Jillian said. "She's awesome. She's a rockstar."
Despite two recent knee replacements, Ruthie still spends every day caring for her flowers, watering and weeding. "Flowers make me feel good," she told the outlet.
And she's going to continue gardening for as long as she can.
"As long as the wheels keep turning," she joked of her gardening habit, referring to both the wheelbarrow she was pushing — and herself — as she gave a tour of her garden.
"People don't believe that I'm 100," added Ruthie, who recently celebrated the milestone birthday with family.
One of her gifts? The sassy yellow T-shirt she was wearing, printed with the words, "Limited Edition Vintage Est. 1923. Aged to Perfection."
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Related: Bride Includes Her Adorable Dog as Flower Girl in Wedding: She's 'Part of the Family'
In a similar story several years ago, Tennessee bride Lyndsey Raby had not one — but four grandmothers — serve as flower girls in her wedding. They included her two grandmothers and her great-grandmother, as well as her fiancé's grandmother.
“I’m so lucky,” Raby told Today Style at the time. “A lot of women don’t get one grandparent at their wedding and I was blessed to have all of them.”
The women — who wore matching light blue lace dresses and jackets for the occasion — formed quite a bond during the experience and now keep in regular contact. “They’re all besties now and talking on Facebook,” Raby said. “Family is the most important thing to all of us.”
Wedding photographer Natalie Caho recalled being amazed by the grandmothers' energy and excitement throughout the event.
“I was not expecting the level of sass that these girls brought,” she said. “Their energy all day was that of a little girl who was in the same position. It truly just goes to show that age is just a number.”
Like Raby, Wolfgang Van Halen's wife Andraia Allsop decided to have her grandmothers be flower girls at the couple's Oct. 15 wedding, and it was a full-circle moment for the bride.
"Back in March, my grandfather passed away, but when he and my grandma got married in the early 1990s, I was about 3, and so I was their flower girl," Allsop told PEOPLE.
"So I thought it would be fitting and just a nice little moment to have my mom's mom and my dad's mom be our flower girls."
Van Halen is the son of music legend Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli.
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