First Day Of Spring Birthday: East Haven's Marie Streeto Is 104

EAST HAVEN, CT — When we first met Marie Streeto in early 2021, she was the tender age of 102, going on 103. Sunday, the first day of spring, she turned 104.

Bright and cheery, and very much with-it, when Patch met her last year, the last thing she said was she just wanted to "keep living." She'd already survived two pandemics.

Marie was celebrated at a birthday party in her honor Monday at East Farms Village. A party attended by many, including East Haven Mayor Joseph A. Carfora. He presented her with a proclamation: "This an amazing milestone, may this day be filled with happiness. Happy 104th Birthday!"

Streeto, who looks decades younger than her 104 years, appears to be going strong.

"She’s very active in the community for her age," said Valerie Petrillo, of the East Farms Village tenant relations office. "At every party we had in 2021, one for Halloween, a luau, she was there. At every one."

Patch spent an afternoon with Marie at her warm and welcoming East Farms apartment last winter. At the time, she spoke about surviving pandemics, and more.

Born more than a century ago in Fair Haven, Marie Streeto, just days shy of her 103rd birthday, was an infant in 1918 when both her parents contracted influenza, two of the 500 million infected globally with the Spanish flu.

An infant, she'd live with her aunt for months to stay safe as her mother and father battled the illness. They both survived.

Streeto was born as World War I was ending. She lived through the pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression, WWII and “everything since.” At the time, she was asked how she's managed. “If I’m OK today, that’s good. There’s tomorrow. But I live for today.”

She grew up in Fair Haven, near Chatham Square. A daily mass-goer, she attended St. Francis School, and is its oldest living alumni. Very involved in the church, she was, at age 80, the president. The mother of two sons, her husband, a WWII veteran, died more than 20 years ago. While he was overseas, she raised her young sons in East Haven, worked for years at a bank, ran polio fundraising drives, dabbled in politics and mostly, enjoyed the familial relationship she had with friends and neighbors in East Haven.

'I wasn't afraid'

Beginning in 2020, and continuing on today, she's found herself living through a second pandemic. But she hasn't been too worried.

“I wasn’t afraid,” Streeto said at the time. “I just take every day …it’s another day to live. I pray. If I’m OK, I’m fine. It’s that attitude. That’s how I live.”

She got vaccinated in February 2021 and encouraged others to do the same. “It was fine. I had to have it. I felt it was necessary. I want to keep living. You do what you should do.”

Streeto has bright eyes and luminescent skin, credited to “good genes.” She sometimes cooks for herself and, with a little help, keeps her apartment tidy.

To what does she attribute her advanced age and overall good health?

“Nothing special," she said. “Ordinary living. Good friends, close-knit family, faith, good food and red wine. That's it.”