There’s no telling for sure whether 107-year-old Dorothy Kuroiwa is the oldest living person in Hawaii, but surely she’s one of the most independent centenarians around.

Two women who were reported to be the oldest island residents died last year a month apart, both at the age of 108.

After seeing all her siblings and most of her friends pass on, Kuroiwa is at a loss to explain why she’s managed to live as long as she has. But she’s not dwelling on what it all means.

"I have no regrets," she said. "I could go anytime."

Still living on her own in her Manoa home, Kuroiwa gets regular visits from her four children — Walter, 78; Kenneth, 85; Caroline Harada, 83; and Doris Noda, 80 — and her 11 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

She makes her own breakfast and lunch, and eats healthy with a diet heavy on vegetables, fresh fish and an occasional boiled egg. "I make papaya and mush (oatmeal) for breakfast," she said.

Other than a daily multivitamin, Kuroiwa takes no medications."I have no aches and pains."

She sometimes uses a walker, but only at her children’s insistence "because she moves too fast," according to Harada. Kuroiwa recently took a tumble while chasing a cockroach down a hallway, her daughter said.

Sports —baseball, football and volleyball — are one of her passions. Harada calls her mother daily to provide a schedule of sporting events on TV so she doesn’t miss any of the games.

If there is a recurring theme in Kuroiwa’s life, it’s an indefatigable work ethic and determination to make a good living for her family.

She said her life’s mantra over the years was, "I’ll never be poor."

"I worked hard, but had everything I wanted."

Kuroiwa was born Feb. 12, 1906, and grew up in Kona working on her father’s coffee farm. Her parents were immigrants from Japan.

"I came from a big family with three sisters and four brothers," she said.

She recalls riding in a horse and buggy, using an outhouse and the half-day trek from her Hawaii island home to the beach.

"Kids are lucky nowadays — so spoiled. They have everything," she said.

As a teenager Kuroiwa moved to Oahu to attend business school and graduated with a certificate attesting to the skills she would use later in a succession of family businesses.

She handled the billing for her husband, David, who made regular door-to-door deliveries of block ice in the 1930s before refrigerators were a household fixture. (Her oldest son, Kenneth, jokes that he is the shortest in the family because lugging ice for his dad stunted his growth.)

The family was living in Moiliili when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. "Bombs were falling all over the place — lots of black smoke," Kuroiwa said.

Worried about further attacks, they built a bomb shelter in their home. She recalls it was a tough time since people of Japanese ancestry weren’t allowed to congregate. "It was hard; the kids wore gas masks to school," she said.

Kuroiwa worked as a tailor making caps and belts for the Army officers at Schofield Barracks. "She has this big sewing machine at home," Harada said. "She always worked. We would all be in the bomb shelter, but after too many false alarms, she would just stay in the house and keep sewing."

Despite a shortage of lumber and other materials, the Kuroiwas built their Manoa home soon after the war ended. They later opened Nuuanu Flower Shop, specializing in funeral wreaths. "We all helped her. She worked 12 hours a day, 364 days a year. We only closed on New Year’s Day," Noda recalled.

"We had a hothouse in our yard," said son Walter Kuroiwa. "The whole backyard was filled with anthuriums."

Harada added, "She had a Midas touch when it came to business."

Kuroiwa’s business acumen and hard work enabled her to retire at the age of 58. With their children married and living on their own, she and her husband decided it was time to splurge a little.

"It was my husband’s dream to get a Cadillac," she said, so they purchased one of the luxury cars.

"She’d be drag racing on the freeway. She was old already, in her 60s," Noda said.

"She said no one would hit her big car," Harada chimed in.

The couple also took cruises to the Caribbean, Alaska and the Panama Canal before Kuroiwa’s husband died in 1981. Switzerland is one of her favorite destinations, and Russia "was nice."

"Hawaii’s the best, though. No place is green like Hawaii," she said.

And, of course, there’s Las Vegas. Up until her early 90s, Kuroiwa would take two-week trips to the gambling mecca twice a year.

"I’d play cards, the dice tables," she said.

"I’m good at it, you know. It keeps my brain active."