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When her doctor told her she couldn't live alone anymore, Thelma E. Burton didn't listen.

It wasn't up to the doctor, as she saw it, and Thelma, now 91, isn't a woman who lets other people make decisions for her.

Thelma Burton, 91, volunteers at the Metropolitan Better Living Center on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 in Oklahoma City, Okla. Burton won a Salute to Senior Service award this year for her volunteerism. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

A year passed. The doctor offered the same grim advice, but Thelma still wasn't ready to yield. She waited one year more before deciding he was right. Then she left everything and everyone she knew in California and moved into her granddaughter's Edmond home in 2007.

I've got four daughters and one son, Thelma said, and they're fine people. But I didn't want to live with them because they're too bossy. I'm independent. I like to take care of myself.

She takes care of others, too. Despite her age, she is vibrant, hardworking and relentlessly positive. Those same qualities earned her recognition earlier this year as Oklahoma's winner of the Home Instead Senior Care network's Salute to Senior Service Award.

Thelma volunteers at the Metropolitan Better Living Center, 702 NE 37, five days a week. She cooks meals at the center on special occasions, makes homemade bread rolls and encourages other seniors to stay involved in life and exercise.

I like to be active. I think that's why I'm still living. I don't like to do like most old people, she said, laughing, and I even try to help old people stay alive.

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