Driving past the single-family homes in a quiet Essex neighborhood, you’d never suspect that anything unusual was behind those doors. But one such house belongs to Miss Lucy Ambrosetti, who just celebrated her 100th birthday. Not only has she reached the century mark, she has done so independently; she still lives on her own, managing her own pill box and clothes.
Lucy has lived in the same house in Essex, now decorated with flower-patterned curtains and couches, since 1947. When she and her husband Louis first moved in, the neighborhood was much different than it is now; it was “all wooded area,” Lucy says, and the Marlyn Avenue bridge was made of wood too. Only three other people lived in the neighborhood.
“It was a family thing,” Lucy recalled. “Everyone would come over on the weekends” to have a good time and sample some delicious crab soup.
Lucy had met Louis when she was 15 and married him a year later, in 1929. A framed picture of her wedding hangs on the wall in her living room. She has also kept her wedding dress, veil and gloves neatly folded in a box in her closet for over 80 years, except when she lent the items out to friends and family.
Louis started a business in Sparrow’s Point, A & A Refrigeration, where he worked for 35 years before health concerns prompted him to switch to the pool chemical business. Lucy helped her husband in this endeavor, driving herself to the office at around 11 a.m. and leaving at 3 p.m. to have time to prepare supper. She actually drove all the way up until she was 97, with “no citations or nothing” in the entire time she’s been behind the wheel. She learned to drive at age 16; her first car was a Henry J with a stick shift.
Lucy Ambrosetti was no stranger to hard work, either. She was born to immigrant parents in Rochester, New York, one of seven children. The family moved to Baltimore when Lucy was an infant so her mother could receive treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Lucy’s father, a WWI veteran, died at a young age, putting the burden of both raising the kids and making money on her mother. Lucy and another sister helped out by working with their mother at a coat factory. Everyone did what was needed to make ends meet.
“Family means a lot,” Lucy said, and she loves to share stories of her “big Italian family” through the pictures on the walls, mantle and photo albums of her home.
Lucy’s closest family members might be her niece and her nephew, Ralph, who she raised after her sister (the children’s mother) developed heart problems. Ralph organized a party for his “second mother’s” 100th birthday at Costa’s on June 8. Friends and family from as far away as Michigan, West Virginia and Georgia came to help celebrate. Lucy got a lovely blue dress with sequins to wear for the occasion, and had fun eating and talking with her loved ones. She even downed a few beers!
“A lot of people came up to me and told me it was the best party they had ever been to,” she said.
She also received special acknowledgement at St. Claire’s church, where she “never misses a Sunday” - the whole congregation sang “Happy Birthday” to her.
Lucy is also involved in the Dundalk Moose Lodge 1228, where she has been a member for 47 years. She is looking forward to becoming a permanent member and getting her dues waived in three years.
When asked about the secret to her longevity, Lucy said that her diet played a major role. “My mother didn’t have anything, but she was always very particular about what she fed us,” she explained. Lucy recommends olive oil, garlic and the occasional glass of wine.
But perhaps there’s another reason for her long life: she seems to really enjoy it, laughing easily and sharing jokes (and frequent meals and stories) with friends and neighbors.
“I enjoy people and I get along with them all,” she said. “I wouldn’t move out of here for all the money in the world.”
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