Wantagh woman celebrates 100th birthday as cheering family, friends drive by

Millie Alberti has lived through a lot.

The Great Depression. World War II. The tragedy of losing two of her children. And now she's enduring a global pandemic that has forced millions of Long Islanders to stay at home.

What Alberti hadn’t experienced was a drive-by parade to celebrate her birthday — until Saturday.

Alberti, who turned 100 Monday, was pleasantly surprised by the stream of cars that came to her apartment complex on a warm sunny afternoon Saturday.

Family members and friends arrived in about two dozen vehicles, moving slowly as they drove past Alberti, who sat on a bench outside her home in Wantagh, her son John Alberti said.

“That was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe [there were] that many cars,” Millie Alberti said. “I thought it was never going to end.”

As the cars went by, drivers honked, great-grandchildren blew kisses, and others held colorful balloons or handmade signs decorated with family photos.

In the era of social distancing, the drive-by parade has emerged as a new way to celebrate milestones, show appreciation of health workers, console grieving families and cheer up a vulnerable population confined in isolation.

“The whole thing just made me very happy,” the centenarian said. “It was really, really the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Alberti was born in Manhattan on May 11, 1920, only two years after the 1918 influenza pandemic. In 1943, she married Nicholas Alberti, who died in 1997 at age 82, according to John Alberti. The family moved from Brooklyn to Long Island in 1952.

Millie Alberti was a homemaker when her three children were young. Later, she worked as a seamstress until she was in her mid-60s, her son said.

The family suffered greatly when James Alberti, Millie’s first-born, died of leukemia at age 18 in 1962. Four decades later, Alberti’s only daughter, Benita Alberti, died of colon cancer at age 56.

“It’s been a good life. It’s sad at times,” said John Alberti, 71, of his mother. “She’s always had a good attitude, always positive. I guess you have to be to make it through 100.”

Diana Feinberg, 38, Alberti’s granddaughter, of East Quogue, described her grandmother as someone who treasured family tradition.

“She grew up as an Italian immigrant in Brooklyn with Sunday sauce dinners,” Feinberg said. “Every Sunday, religiously we would be at her house. … She loved that tradition of getting everyone together on a Sunday.”

Saturday was the first time Alberti’s grandchildren saw her in person since March as new coronavirus cases surged in New York.

“It was great to see her again,” said Alberti’s grandson, Nicholas Alberti, 39, of Yorktown Heights. “For such a big birthday, it was too bad we couldn’t be there on her actual birthday. I guess this is the next best thing.”