At 100, woman still enjoys TV & A.C.
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer
Some people just know how to live and Theresa Longo is one of them. The diminutive Freehold Township resident celebrated her 100th birthday Dec. 14.

Theresa lives with her daughter, Anna Seker, andAnna's husband, Robert, in the Silvermead adult community.

Seker and her brother, Nicholas, helped Theresa celebrate the auspicious occasion by arranging a wonderful surprise party that was held on Dec. 1 at the Freehold Township Independent Fire Company No. 1. There, 120 family members and friends came to wish Theresa well upon reaching the status of centenarian.

Theresa said she liked her party.

"I laughed a lot," she said.

And laughing seems to be something the tiny woman does well and quite often. Age has not dimmed the cheerful smile, the sparkle and an almost mischievous nature she exhibits while sitting for an interview in her daughter's home.

Theresa was born in Hazleton, Pa., in 1907 to Nicholas and Millie Potenza. She started working at the age of 17 in the Dublin Silk Mills in Hazelton. She made sewing her career and worked in the mills from 1922 through 1947.

Theresa Longo of Freehold Township recently celebrated her 100th birthday. The native of Hazleton, Pa., moved to New Jersey in 1947 and worked in the American Velour Mills in Bound Brook until her retirement in 1969.

During those years she married her husband, Frank, now deceased, and had two sons, Rocco, now deceased, and Nicholas, who lives in Pocono, Pa., and a daughter, Anna Jean.

Theresa and her husband moved to New Jersey, settling in Somerville in 1947, where she took a job in the American Velour Mills in Bound Brook. Theresa worked there until 1969 when she retired at the age of 62.

Seker said her mom moved to Silvermead to live with her and her husband in 1996. Making the transition to Freehold Township seems to have worked well for the family.

These days Theresa enjoys watching game shows and westerns on television. One of her favorite shows is "Walker, Texas Ranger" with Chuck Norris.

Although Seker's husband is retired, he is out for much of the day so Theresa is on her own quit a bit and manages just fine, according to Seker.

"I get up and make her breakfast before I go to work and I put on her shoes because

that's a bit difficult for her. She does the rest herself though," Seker said.

Theresa has been an active member of the Silvermead Community Club and the Silvermead Rosary Society for nine years. She is also a member of the Catholic Daughters of America, first in Somerville and then in Bound Brook.

Theresa enjoys playing bingo and traveling to Atlantic City with her daughter and sonin law.

"I love the slots," she said. When asked if she wins, she smiled and said, "sometimes I do."

Theresa has seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

When asked what she misses most about "the old days," Theresa pointed to a beautiful holiday tablecloth she had made years ago.

"This," she said.

The green holiday cloth was bedecked with Christmas cutouts of Santa Claus, tiny toy trains, Christmas trees and many other symbols of holiday merriment. The fleece cutouts were each individually, lovingly and painstakingly crafted with tiny sequins, beads and trimming.

Not being able to do that type of intricate work is a source of discontentment for a woman who used the skill of working with her hands for many years, for both work and gifts for her family. Whether sewing clothes for herself or her children in her early years, or making elaborate, intricate holiday crafts for her children and now their children, in her later years, Theresa misses that part of her life.

"It's too difficult for her to do those things now," Seker said.

So what is the secret to aging gracefully and living a life that, at age 100, requires only a walker, a heart pill, a blood pressure pill and a few eye drops?

Theresa swears the secret to her longevity is the fact that she eats raw red meat (ground beef) and raw sausage.

"When Anna is making meatballs, I just take a handful and eat it raw," she said laughing.

And the sausage? She does take the casing off, but eats that raw as well.