‘Bingo Queen’ celebrates 109th birthday — as friends reveal centenarian’s secret to a long life
A Maryland woman celebrated her 109th birthday by playing bingo with her friends who said the centenarian’s secret to a long life is staying single for the past three decades.
Jennie Libertini celebrated another birthday on Feb. 5 at Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Martin’s Home in Catonsville and many wanted to know her secrets to a long life.
“She’s been without a man, she’s been divorced for about 30 years, so no stress,” friend and resident Peggy Bocklage told CBS News.
With no man to annoy her, the centenarian had nothing to worry about besides getting a few rounds of bingo in on her big day.
“When she was asked what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she wanted to have a bingo birthday party,” Marcy Shea-Frank, the center’s development director told People.
A group of Baltimore City Catholic schoolgirls also joined Libertini and the home’s residents to celebrate her big birthday.
“She just loved it,” Shea-Frank told the magazine.
Libertini was born to Sicilian immigrants in 1915 and had three siblings, according to the home.
The centenarian would go on to marry and would become one of the first women ever hired to work by the Social Security Administration, according to the magazine.
She also had a son named Michael, who was her caretaker until his death at 83. She went to live with a friend after that but eventually moved into the home at the age of 105.
Since arriving at the home, Libertini, who does not speak much anymore, took it upon herself to make sure other residents were eating and even gave them food off her plate, Shea-Frank said.
Libertini recently suffered from a bad fall, causing her to become wheelchair-bound. After her injury, she “kind of stopped communicating,” Shea-Frank said.
However, that doesn’t stop her from joining her favorite activity: Bingo.
“When it’s Bingo, she’s here,” Her friend Julie Snyder told CBS News. “She’s the Bingo Queen.”
Although Libertini has a hard time hearing the numbers being called, she has someone sit with her to help her play, Bocklage told the news outlet.
“She looks at the board and sees the numbers and she wins,” Bocklage said. “She’s the sweetest little thing since she came here.”
Libertini is known in the home as being a “very caring” person who is “extremely sweet” and “just happy.”
“Even in the condition she’s in now, all she does is smile and nod her head,” the director said.
“I come every year because she’s just such an inspiration to me,” Snyder told CBS News.
