The current stay-at-home orders needed to minimize the spread of COVID-19 is nothing new for Dorothy Boneza.

The Manteca resident better known as Dottie grew up in Oklahoma in the small town of Snyder. She was a fifth grader in the early 1930s, visiting her sister in Texas when the outbreak of a deadly disease forced home quarantine in Oklahoma.

“I couldn’t get back home and had to repeat fifth grade,” she said on Wednesday.

Dottie Boneza is a few days shy of her 100th birthday. On Sunday, she officially becomes a centenarian. A big party was initially planned in her honor but those plans were scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I never thought I’d live this long,” Boneza said from her cozy home at El Rancho Mobile Park.

At first, she wanted to live long enough to see daughters including Ranielle Brazell of Manteca married off.

That happened. Boneza now has three grandchildren and three grandchildren – a set of two boys and a girl.

She’s not even the oldest of her surviving siblings. Her sister, Faye Gossett, is 104. Her other sister, Jane Christian, is 94, and her brother, Jack Law, who is a pastor in Modesto, is 90.

Dottie Boneza was 22 when she moved west to California, joining her father in Pleasanton.

“My dad was here for work,” she recalled.

One of her first jobs upon her arrival was at the historic Cresta Blanca Winery in Livermove.

During World War II, she worked at nearby Camp Parks and, soon after, noticed a help-wanted sign at lone Safeway store in downtown Livermore.

“Everyone in town knew my mom,” said Brazell, who remembered growing up there back when the town had a population of about 4,000.

She was an employee of Safeway for 33 years and had fond memories and even not-so-fond memories.

Dottie was robbed at gunpoint during one shift and was later called to identify the suspect via a police lineup. She was rattled for a time and, during a second hold-up attempt, fainted at the store.

Her favorite boss was Tom Matsumoto and one of her most famous encounters was a young John Madden, who was the newly hired coach for the Oakland Raiders.

“He wanted to write a check and I asked him for his ID,” said Dottie of the Hall of Fame coach, announcer, and the name behind the always popular EA Sports video games.

Madden and everyone who lived in Pleasanton knew Dottie, who was the cashier at Safeway.

She also met her husband Edward, who went was known by most as ‘Mick’ – as in Mickey Mouse – due to his short physical stature, in 1947.

He was perfectly suited as jockey, racing horses throughout the West Coast during his riding days. Edward, or Eddie, was later a horse trainer prior to becoming the groundskeeper at Amador Valley High.

He and Dottie were married for 55 years and had four children. They moved from Pleasanton to Pine Grove before finally settling down in Manteca in 1989.

“I was taller than him,” she said of her late husband – Eddie, who was born and raised in Hawaii, died in 2002 at age 82.

He was a young man of 21 when he was swimming in the lagoon near Honolulu on the morning Dec. 7, 1941 and witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Eddie soon enlisted in the Army.

Dottie lived through her share of historical events.

She remembered making skirts out of 50-pound flour sacks during the Great Depression and barely spoke with a whisper during the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the 1930s. At Camp Parks, she often gambled for WWII food ration stamps during lunchtime.

Dottie Boneza has managed to remain good health during most of her years. She took up golfing at age 55 and, according to her daughter, was good enough to win several events at Manteca Park Golf Course.

She insisted on walking the course.

 “Mom never believed in using a golf cart – it helped her game,” Ranielle Brazell said.

Dottie last picked up her clubs about four years ago and, reluctantly, sold them not too long ago.

On the other hand, she does have a golf cart, which she uses to get around El Rancho Mobile Park, having finally relinquished her driving privileges about a year ago.

Her daughter Ranielle believes her mother’s longevity, besides health, is her ability to maintain a social balance even today.

“When she was in her 70s, she mentioned that all of her friends were dying,” Ranielle recalled. “What did she do?

“She went out and made new friends.”

It’s those friends and family members who are looking forward to Dottie Boneza’s special day this weekend. Even from afar.