Family and friends gathered Friday in North Valley Stream for a special occasion: the 105th birthday celebration of Nancy Canfarotta.  Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin

"Hard work" was Nancy Canfarotta's immediate reply when asked what the secret was to her longevity.

Surrounded by family, friends and other well-wishers, Canfarotta celebrated her 105th birthday Friday, as the news media chronicled her folksy stories, which included sharing recipes for cooking her favorite Italian dishes.

Canfarotta greeted everyone on a hot afternoon while sitting in a wheelchair on the front lawn of the North Valley Stream home of one of her daughters and son-in-law, Terry and Larry Mirro.

Then it was down to business. After wishing her happy birthday, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman asked, "What's the secret?" prompting Canfarotta's answer of hard work. Blakeman presented her with a citation, saying, "This is your day. This is Nancy's day."

A neighbor, Artika Boulding, accompanied by her mother-in-law Phyllis Boulding, presented Canfarotta with flowers and balloons. "We're lucky to have her," Artika Boulding said. "She's a wonderful, wonderful welcoming addition to this neighborhood."

"Everybody asks me what's her secret," Terry Mirro said in an interview. "Tell you the truth, I think it was hard work. She was the eldest of five siblings. They're all gone, She took care of her family. … Actually, she never finished high school. She took care of her brothers and sisters while my grandmother and grandfather worked: the cooking, the cleaning, the shopping. … My mother is just a very, very hard worker. And it's her faith in the Lord, it really is. It's family comes first."

Canfarotta has lived with the Mirros since she was 87 years old. "It was time," Terry Mirro said. "Healthwise, she's in pretty good shape. She has some issues. She's blind in one eye." Mirro says her mother has excellent long term memory, while the short-term memory is a bit spotty.

And up until she was 95, Mirro said, her mother routinely walked up and down the stairs of the two-story home. She also did a lot of cooking, cleaning and laundry while Terry Mirro worked. Now there's a chairlift that ferries her up and down the stairs and she usually gets around using a walker. 

Larry Mirro said of his mother-in-law: "She's persistent. She loves life. She loves family. She loves looking out the window at everybody, seeing what's going on in the community."

And she really loves sharing her obvious joy of cooking.

She immediately recalled her late mother telling her, "Nancy, take the pot, and don't forget the olive oil," as she began talking about cooking. Her hands went through the motions in her lap as she talked: "chop, chop — onions and garlic. Don't burn it," perhaps an admonition from her mother as well as directions to her listeners.

She gave details about cooking braciole, noting one secret was getting a good piece of beef, like her mother did from a Lower East Side butcher all those years ago when the family lived in Manhattan, "on the third floor of Avenue B" around 12th Street, Canfarotta said. There's the garlic and onion, salt and pepper, cheese, "a little bread crumbs" she said, then instructing listeners to roll the meat and tie it up with string. "My mother had a spool of white cotton, just for the braciole."

And she talked about family: her "three beautiful brothers," one of whom, the youngest, joined the NYPD. 

Canfarotta recalled her father was the "ice and coal man" who traveled by horse and wagon — "he had the most gorgeous horses." He also made his own wine.

"My mother, my father — they didn't spoil us, but they gave us everything," she said. "A beautiful home. The piece of meat on the table. The glass of wine — vino."

Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV Credit: Newsday

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