Betty Hutchinson, center, alongside Dr. Jeffrey McElroy and a wave of supporters from the Mid-Ohio Valley began her walk across the Belpre-Parkersburg bridge Friday afternoon. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

BELPRE — Betty Hutchinson marked her 100th birthday earlier this month by retracing a path that has defined much of her life, walking the Belpre Bridge on Friday alongside her longtime orthopaedic physician, Dr. Jeffrey McElroy.

Hutchinson, a Belpre resident and longtime patient at WVU Medicine Camden Clark, celebrated the milestone birthday she reached Dec. 13 with the walk, honoring her recovery and continued mobility following multiple major orthopaedic surgeries.

The walk fulfilled a promise made more than a decade ago between Hutchinson and McElroy, who has treated her for more than 15 years.

“Fifteen years ago, she asked me, ‘How long will my knee last?'” McElroy said. “I told her it would probably last her lifetime. She said, ‘Well, how do you know?’ I told her I didn’t. And she said, ‘Well, when I turn 100, I’m walking across the Belpre Bridge. Are you going to walk with me?’ I said, ‘Sure.'”

Over the years, McElroy performed Hutchinson’s bilateral knee replacements and later treated her for a hip fracture. Friday’s walk served as a post-birthday celebration and a testament to her ability to remain active and independent at age 100.

From left, Dr. Jeffrey McElroy and Betty Hutchinson share a laugh before crossing the bridge from Belpre to Parkersburg together on Friday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

The bridge holds deep personal significance for Hutchinson, who is known locally as one of Belpre’s original “Rosie the Riveters.” During World War II, she worked at the Parkersburg shovel plant, making trench shovels before later serving as a riveter, painter and inspector. To get to work, Hutchinson routinely walked across the Belpre Bridge before boarding a streetcar to the plant.

“I used to live on Fifth Street, and I’d walk from there over and back, work all day, and then walk home at night,” Hutchinson said. “I did that for about 20 or 30 years. I walked that bridge when I was young.”

Now, nearly a century later, Hutchinson walked the bridge again — this time in celebration of restored mobility and a long-standing physician-patient relationship.

“And so he did my hip,” Hutchinson said of McElroy. “I fell, broke my back.”

Despite multiple surgeries and setbacks, Hutchinson said she continues to take life one day at a time.

“I live one day at a time,” she said. “God put me here for one reason, and that hasn’t been fulfilled. So when it’s fulfilled, I’m ready to go. But he doesn’t want me now.”

Asked what advice she would offer others hoping to stay active later in life, Hutchinson kept it simple.

“Just do what I want to do, eat what I want to eat, go where I want to go,” she said.

Representatives from the Belpre Senior Center and WVU Medicine Camden Clark joined Hutchinson for the celebratory walk, which also highlighted the hospital’s commitment to helping patients maintain mobility and independence at every stage of life.

Gwen Sour can be reached at gsour@newsandsentinel.com