“Happy birthday to me!” announced Sylvia Fuchs with a wave of her hand, as she walked into a room full of family and well-wishers for her 102nd birthday party Tuesday afternoon.
Fuchs’s birthday was an especially noteworthy one; at 102, she is now the oldest living resident of the town of Amherst. On hand for the celebration at Amherst’s Center for Extended Care was Nancy Pagano, director of the Amherst Senior Center, who presented Fuchs with a Golden Cane award, an honor given to the oldest resident in each town in Massachusetts.
“It was originally for the oldest man, but that got changed,” Pagano said.
The award’s previous holder was Marietta Iantosca, who died in May at age 105. Interestingly, both women bear the middle initial “R.”
Fuchs was born in New York City on Aug. 2, 1914. According to her daughter Barbara Kline, she was born prematurely and weighed only 2½ pounds when she was brought home.
Yet she survived without even the use of an infant incubator, and lived in the city until she was 40, when she and her husband moved to Westchester, New York. It was there that she raised a family and worked as a secretary, until she moved to Amherst at 89.
“Amherst is a loving, loving town, everyone is very helpful and caring,” she said.
Fuchs, who is blind, was presented with the Golden Cane itself, a short black staff with an engraved metal cap. The moment was punctuated by Fuchs joking “Stop rubbing it in!” when she was officially named the town’s oldest resident.
Around 45 people turned up to wish Fuchs a happy birthday and congratulate her on receiving the award, including her children, grandchildren and numerous friends.
One, who said he had not seen Fuchs for almost 60 years, drove three-and-a-half hours from New York to see her. Many of them posed with Fuchs for pictures, and ate cake with icing in the shape of the Golden Cane.
In a short speech, Fuchs thanked those in attendance for coming and thanked the town for the Golden Cane “with love and kisses.”
Among her passions is opera, which she began attending when she was 14, and reading about history.
When asked about her recipie for long life, Fuchs looks up toward the ceiling and points up.
“We don’t control that,” she told the Bulletin. “When it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”
Isaac Burke can be reached at iburke@umass.edu.