Tennyson Court resident turns 100 years old

Lucy Eusanio, seated in front, celebrated her 100th birthday this past Saturday with her siblings Barbra Abraham, Jacqueline Migliore, Emil Eusanio, Jr. and Eugene Eusanio, at Tennyson Court. Photo by Jim Smerecak Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

Lucy Eusanio, a resident of Tennyson Court Senior Care Community since 2002, will celebrate her milestone 100th birthday with family and friends from around the country on Saturday at Tennyson Court.

Eusanio's birthday was March 12. The daughter of Charles and Mathilda Marrano, both from Italy, she was born in Lackawanna and was the eldest of eight children.

Married at age 17, she moved to Buffalo, where she would spend the next 70 years before moving into Tennyson Court, an assisted living residence located in Williamsville, just before her 95th birthday. Eusanio's family has grown in number to more than 90, including six children; 22 grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren and two more on the way.

"That's what I get for marrying so young," Eusanio said.

Throughout her years, Eusanio has enjoyed giving back to the community. For several years, she volunteered as a Girl Scout leader and was proud to have their picture taken in front of the White House some 40-plus years ago.

However, one of Eusanio's fondest memories was providing prayer bracelets to U. S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004, with the help of Activities Director Ann Hoffman, Eusanio helped spearhead an effort to make hundreds of prayer bracelets for U. S. soldiers serving abroad. Each bracelet, colored red, white and blue, came with a tag on it indicating the name of the person who requested the bracelet and who is also praying for them. Also written on the tag was a common message, "The name on the bracelet is praying for you, keep it near, until you're home … remember that we thank you."

"We just thought it would be nice, we wanted the soldiers to know we are praying for them," Eusanio said about working on the bracelet project.

Eusanio understood the sacrifices of war. During World War II, she had three sons serve in the Pacific.

She said it was the happiest day of her life when all three sons came home safely.

One of her sons, Eugene Eusanio, attributes her longevity to never having a drink of alcohol, never smoking a cigarette and never having a driver's license - for safety purposes.

When asked what she feels has attributed to her living this long, Eusanio said, "I don't know, I guess I've just been blessed?"