Josephine Cirella Filippelli will celebrate her 100th birthday on May 30. Hundreds of her family members and friends are throwing her a birthday party the next day. Photo by Anna Gustafson
Josephine Cirella Filippelli has, from her corner of the world in South Queens, seen history unfold.
Born on May 30, 1914 in Woodhaven and raised on Sitka Street in Ozone Park, the soon-to-be centenarian has lived through two world wars – the first of which erupted in Europe just months after her birth, the Great Depression, and the emergence of the United States as a global superpower – much of which she has read about as she, for most of her life, daily digested the newspaper.
For nearly 100 years, she has been a witness to the world’s great ups and downs – all while playing out her own days with her parents, who emigrated from Italy around the turn of the 20th century, and her eight brothers and sisters.
“We were happy,” Filippelli, who still resides in Ozone Park, said of her childhood. “We had a piano – we danced; we sang. We all got along really well.”
A graduate of what is now JHS 210 in Ozone Park, Filippelli left school at the age of 14 to work at an undergarments factory – and she didn’t retire until she was 74 years old.
“I really enjoyed my work,” she said, smiling. “I still keep in touch with some of the girls I worked with.”
It would be impossible to truly get at the enormity of what a century of life has meant to someone – but, when asked how she got to where she is now, Filippelli will tell you she has done it by living “day by day.”
“You have to have a good time; don’t worry about nothing,” said Filippelli, a proponent of living life on your own terms – her niece noted she “eats whatever she wants” – and whose doctor has told her he doesn’t doubt she’ll see her 120th birthday.
To mark the 100 years she has spent in this world, Filippelli will be joined by hundreds of family members and friends for a celebration of her life on May 31. Hailing from all corners of the country – from Utah to Georgia to Massachusetts – hundreds people who love Filippelli will descend upon Eisenhower Park on Long Island for a birthday party worthy of a life that has spanned a century.
By Anna Gustafson
