Charleroi’s Cecilia Sciortino turns 101 today

By TAYLOR BROWN
tbrown@yourmvi.com
For the first time in as long as she can remember, Cecilia Pennline Sciortino won’t be in the kitchen preparing her birthday meal this year.
Instead, today as she turns 101, she will enjoy a birthday meal prepared by her family.
While she is grateful, she would rather be doing the cooking.
Born on May 28, 1919, she has lived her entire life in Charleroi and was the youngest of eight children. She was born amid the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic — which lasted until 1920 — and is now witness to the coronavirus pandemic.
Her parents, Henry and Pauline, settled in the Mon Valley after immigrating from a small town near Naples, Italy.
She and her late husband, Joe, raised two boys, Joseph and Henry.
Now she stays young by keeping up with her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a host of nieces of nephews.
She enjoys making homemade meals – using all homemade pastas, sauces and her mother’s secret recipe – for her family, but after a fall in January left her with a broken femur and a bruised hand and arm, she is reluctantly letting someone else do the cooking.
Her caretaker, Cindy Gernat, has taken over in the kitchen most other days, with a specific set of instructions.
“She will prep the vegetables and things like that, but she won’t be able to cook again until her hand is healed, so she gives me strict orders on what I need to do and has shared with me the family secrets,” Gernat said.
She has not – and will not — share them with anyone else.
“When I am gone, it will be up to Cindy to keep this going,” Cecilia said.
“She told me I should start selling them,” Gernat laughed.
On Saturday, her niece, Penny, organized a drive by parade to celebrate her birthday a few days early.
There were about 18 cars in the line-up, led by the fire department.
When she was taken outside of her home at the Crest Avenue apartments in Charleroi and saw a fire truck coming up the hill, she thought there was an emergency.
“I never thought all of that fuss would be for me,” she said. “But, when he started honking the horn and I saw all of my family driving by, it was just beautiful.”
Even though they could not come inside, they showered her with gifts, cards and love all from a distance.
“I felt like a queen,” she said. “And, I guess queens don’t really cook for themselves anyway. It’s killing me to not be in the kitchen, that’s all I’d really want for my birthday.”
While she will reluctantly be served by others today, she said she is mostly thankful.
“I thank God everyday for this beautiful life I have lived,” she said. “I had a wonderful childhood, a wonderful family, I honestly can’t believe I have made it this long.”