MONTREAL -- Ask 101-year-old Lisa Gartner what she attributes her longevity to and she'll tell you it's all about heavenly clerical errors.

“God lost my file, and he forgot about me” she said, laughing.

At around 1:30 p.m.  on Christmas Day, her extended family came to the stoop of Cote-St-Luc's Waldorf retirement home where Gartner lives, and wished her a happy birthday, albeit wearing masks and standing at a distance.

“At 101-years-old, she’s one of the sharpest people you’d ever want to meet,” said her son, Syd Gartner.

Born in Romania on Dec. 25, 1919, the elder Gartner emigrated to Canada at the age of nine. 

Syd’s brother Alan attributed her long life to “a lot of fortune, she never drank, she never smoked,” he said. “And she always had an amazing joie de vivre.”

Next up for Gartner after celebrating her birthday is hooking up a brand new computer she received as a birthday present.

“Would you believe that a lady that just turned 101 is getting a computer?” she said, laughing.