Remembering the past and looking ahead after living for a century
TILLIE CAREY
Don Carey photos/The Times Leader
ROSE LOPRESTO
CLARK VAN ORDEN/THE TIMES LEADER
LOTTIE ZIKO
STACIA OKO
TILLIE JAMES
AIMEE DILGER/The Times Leader
ROSE ROSSI
Tillie Carey walks into a surprise birthday party for her Saturday at the Stage Coach Inn Ballroom. Family members from California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan and Texas came to congratulate her on reaching the century mark.
Aimee Dilger/The Times Leader
They’ve lived for a century each but they don’t talk about the historical events that occurred during their lives.
The members of this group like to remember family, friends and neighborhoods.
They remember the hard work and difficult times.
None of them can say why they’ve lived so long, but they are thankful and look forward to every day ahead.
Five area residents who are 100 years old and older – and two who will turn 100 this year – agreed to talk about their lives.
“We have nothing else to do anyway,” said Rose Baiz Rossi, 101. “But I have a party to go to later today.”
Rossi sat with two of her fellow residents of Little Flower Manor in Wilkes-Barre – Father Harry Lewis, 99, and Anna Madeline Moyer, 99.
“I’d give anything to go back,” Moyer said. “To be in my old neighborhood, my friends and family. If only I stayed young, I could be able to do all the things I never had time for.”
They all worked hard – most of them left school early to help their large families put food on the table. And they did it without question; without protest. They did, as the saying goes, what they had to do.
“We made America,” said Rose Lopresto, 100, of Hanover Township. “We built it up.”
Aspirations
Lottie Ziko, a retired elementary school principal who still reads books and letters from her former students, says she doesn’t feel 100 years old. But she is.Tillie James will be 103 soon and quit school in the third grade to help her family through difficult times. She had her first paying job at age 9. James said her young life revolved around work, church and family.
Moyer wanted to be a nurse, but she never finished high school. Her mother became ill and Moyer did what so many other kids did back then – she quit school and went to work.
“People struggled for everything back then, but we were happy,” Moyer said. “But there was a lot of jealousy, too. If somebody bought a car, some people wouldn’t speak to them. But they got over it.”
“I’ve always hoped that the world would change,” said Father Lewis. “That the world would become more friendly and stop the wars. War has made a difference in people all over the world.”
And then Father Lewis said this:
“I’ve gone through life once; I wouldn’t want to go through it again.”
Moyer said her secret for living long is hard work and the others agree.
“We were always doing something,” she said. “And if I did my work, I would get a nickel for the movies. We had simple pleasures.”
Changing times
The last 100 years have been a parade of significant milestones, inventions and people that fill the pages of history books. The centenarians interviewed by The Times Leader have lived through most, if not all, of that history. But it’s not what they want to talk about. It’s not what they remember as important.
They remember when butter cost a dollar for four pounds and eggs were 20 cents a dozen.
“I could write a book,” Moyer said.
She remembers farmer dances and the anticipation of going to them. Did she dance?
“Oh, for sure,” Moyer said.
Rossi said people today just don’t know each other, and that’s because they don’t take the time. She and the others said neighborhoods were filled with people who cared about each other and helped each other through some of the most difficult times.
Living for 100 years is quite an accomplishment, but dealing with a changed world filled with people they don’t know is a difficult adjustment for them. They long for the days of front porch conversations, block parties and neighborhood celebrations.
They know the pleasure of sitting in their homes with the doors unlocked.
“People today are always on the go,” Rossi said. “Sometimes I ask the good Lord why I’m still here.”
Father Lewis said Catholic Mass is said in English today, as opposed to the Latin rite of years ago.
“But are people hearing what is being preached?” he asked.
Stacia Oko, 102, Lopresto, Ziko, and James said much the same when talking about their lives.
Family, friends, hard work, simple pleasures, faith in God – all common denominators of their lives. They have few regrets.
They have enjoyed life every day and, like everyone else, they look forward to the next with anticipation and excitement.
“Life is what you make it,” Rossi said.
