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Atria Windsor Woods has celebration for four centenarians

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST

Atria Windsor Woods resident Pietra "Lena" Carbone gets a 100th birthday hug about a month early from her "baby," son Jack Titolo, 66.

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: September 26, 2009

HUDSON - It was 1 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, and Atria Windsor Woods was throwing the party of the century - of four centuries, in fact.

The assisted and independent living center was having a special lunchtime celebration for four of its residents, each of whom has reached or is about to reach the age of 100.

Elizabeth Tripodi, who will be 102 in February; Helen Aldrich, who turns 100 in December; and Pietra "Lena" Carbone, who will reach the century mark next month, shared the table of honor.

A fourth resident, 100-year-old Esther Newman, was still in rehab following a recent hospital stay and couldn't make it to the party.

"She's very upset that they wouldn't let her have a leave of absence," Linda Nichols, the Engage Life director at Atria Windsor Woods, said of Newman.

Newman was progressing well, Nichols said, and the center will have another celebration when she returns.

The party had a "queen for a day" theme, though the guests of honor in attendance were only lukewarm about wearing the party favor crowns they were given. They were quite happy to partake of the luncheon spread and champagne, and to take in the compliments of friends, family and well-wishers.

"They're happy I look as well as I do," Tripodi said wryly, adding that she rarely gives her age much thought. But if people want to throw her a party, she wasn't about to turn down them down.

Relatives of Aldrich and Carbone seemed to be having the best time of all as they celebrated their matriarchs.

"I made him," Carbone said, with an unspoken "can you believe it?" attached as she repeatedly hugged her "baby," son Jack Titolo.

"I'm a pretty lucky guy," Titolo added, "to be 66 years old and still be her baby."

Among the guests was New Port Richey Mayor Scott McPherson, who joined in complimenting the quartet.

"When I got the invitation and read that four ladies were turning 100 or 101, I immediately accepted," McPherson said.

"It's amazing; it's such a reminder with the health care today the quality of life you can now have into your 90s to 100 and beyond. It's just phenomenal."

Of all the birthday girls, Aldrich reflected on the day the most.

"What's amazing is when you look back at all the things that have happened in that century," she said. "That's when it dawns on you the time went by. You married, you had your family, you were interested in bringing them up, and you forget that the world is going on."

In some ways, 100 years seems like a long time, Aldrich added, while other times it really doesn't. Aldrich has always considered herself a natural-born student. It's how he's made the most of life.

She wishes, however, personal computers had come along sooner, before her eyesight went bad. "I would have loved it," she said, "because it's easy access to information."

Three more residents at Atria Windsor Woods have 100th birthdays coming in 2010: Florence Rector, Cecelia Securcher and Preston "Bud" More, who was born on New Year's Day 1910.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, the number of centenarians in the United States has risen from 37,306 in 1990 to 96,548 as of January 2008. It is estimated there are about 450,000 people age 100 or older in the world today.

Still, it's unusual to have four residents older than 100, and amazing to possibly have as many as seven at the same time, Nichols said.

That could make for a heck of a celebration next year. She's hoping having a "party of the centuries" will become an annual event at the center.

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