Many of us will meet our grandchildren someday . Some of us will even meet our great-grandchildren , if we’re lucky enough. But I think it’s safe to say that very few people in this world will ever meet 100 of their great-grandchildren.
One Pennsylvania woman can claim such an honor, though, as her 100th great-grandchild was welcomed into the world earlier this month.
This August, baby Koller William Balster was born.
Christine Stokes Balster and her husband Patrick Balster welcomed their second child on August 4th. He became the 100th grandchild of Marguerite “Peg” Koller, who is known to the family as Grandmom.
At 99 years old, you could say that Peg has a pretty big family.
Mother of 11 children, Peg also has 56 grandchildren, and now, she can add 100 great-grandchildren to her still-growing list of family members.
Baby Koller William’s name has special meaning to the family.
Koller William’s name comes from Peg’s last name; William Koller is the name of Peg’s late-husband who died in 2008.
“I ‘ve always loved the name Cole ,” Patrick told Good Morning America . “And Chris one day was like, ‘Hey, how about Koller? This could be baby number 100 for great-grandmom.'”
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From there, everything sort of fell into place.
For Patrick, the name William has significance, too.
“I’m fourth-generation William, middle name. So we’re like, it just made sense. It felt good,” he went on to say.
Koller William isn’t the couple’s only child with a meaningful name.
Christine and Patrick welcomed their first son, Griffin David Balster, to the world two years ago. The name David comes from Christine’s late brother, David Stokes, who passed away from brain cancer in 1990.
The couple kept Koller William’s name a secret until after his birth.
“I think each one of my mom’s siblings — she’s one of 11 — just felt that it was such an honor to my late grandfather and the family name,” Christine said.
Being able to meet great-grandchild number 100 was very emotional for Peg.
“We went to grandmom’s, introduced her to Koller, who was named after the family name,” Christine said. “She was absolutely ecstatic. Limited words for sure.”
“She was just so happy and felt so blessed and lucky to be holding him.”
She continued, “You could feel the emotion and the gratitude and [she] just felt blessed again that she got to hold yet another great-grandbaby, and this one named after my grandfather.”
There was also a little bit of competition to see who would have baby number 100.
Christine admitted that there was a bit of a race to see who would have the 100th great-grandchild. “My cousin Colleen and I were just a day apart [for] our due dates, and she had the 99th great-grandchild, who is absolutely healthy and beautiful,” she said.
Peg will be turning 100 this year.
Her 100th birthday is this coming November, and Christine says that support from the family has aided in her longevity.
“She is present no matter what is going on and however old she is,” she said. “I mean she never misses a graduation, a baptism, a wedding, a book moment at grade school. Whatever it is, she’s always there.”
h/t: Good Morning America