Nascent.

Passion, concern.

Prudent, charity, miracle.

Blessed.

Seven words with seven letters that describe a life.

Or try to. There are so many more:Beloved, for one. Or hospice. Miracle again.

And charmed.

It's that last one to which Stella Grieg is partial (hey, seven letters).

She has always considered herself a lucky person, and seven is her lucky number. She is one of seven daughters. She has seven daughters of her own. Her oldest daughter is 77.

And when the calendar spun triple sevens at midnight this morning - July 7, 2007 - Grieg truly hit the jackpot.

She turned 100 years old. Today is her second 7/7/07 birthday. The first one came when Theodore Roosevelt was in the Oval Office.

"I never thought I'd live to turn 100," Grieg said Thursday, from her home at the Knife River Care Center in Beulah. "I'm not sure what to think, I guess. It really doesn't feel a lot different from when Iturned 50."

That was in 1957. She liked Ike.

Honestly, though, Grieg really didn't think she'd make it to 100. No one did. Her family threw her a quiet 99th birthday party, almost positive it would be her last one. She had severe heart disease and was receiving hospice care. She had punched her ticket.

Not so.

"We didn't think she'd make it," Lori Knoll, Grieg's granddaughter, said. "But she just kept getting better and better, and here we are. She's just amazing. She's a hospice graduate, and they told us there aren't very many of those."

There aren't very many people like Grieg, period.

She was born in Fargo in 1907. She moved to Minneapolis when she was 21, but returned to Fargo three years later to work as a cook for a road-construction crew. It was there that she fell in love - at first sight, she says - with one of the workers. She married Roy Grieg, and the couple moved to Bismarck.

"That was the end of everything, but he was worth it," she said.

The Griegs had 11 children, and lived in south Bismarck for more than 70 years. Her fondest memories are of going on picnics at the park with all of her children and her husband. Roy died in his wife's arms in 1998, at age 95.

"His last words were 'love you,'" Knoll said.

Seven letters.

They're also words by which Grieg lives every day. She moved into the care center in Beulah in April 2006, and made a quick impression. The residents there vote on three awards every year, and Grieg is the reigning titleholder of Most Thoughtful and Most Compassionate.

"She's pretty outgoing and very friendly," said Kala Geestman, the center's human services director. "She's always motherly. I think she likes to take people under her wing."

Often, that is a literal occurrence. Grieg is known for her frequent hugs.

It would be no surprise, then, to learn there is a huge turnout expected today for her 100th birthday party. It is being held from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. MDT today at the Beulah Civic Center. The party is open to all of Grieg's family and friends. With just family, it might be a standing-room-only affair. She has 33 grandchildren, 56 great-grandchildren and 19 great-great-grandchildren.

"Everybody is so good to me here,"Grieg said. "I think I've had a pretty good life."

Fortune or destiny might sum up that good life and its ripple effects, if one was again inclined to count letters. But there's another one Knoll thought might be better.

Perfect.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com.)