By JENNIFER AMATO
Managing Editor
NORTH BRUNSWICK – Mildred Humes met Elena Pacia 14 years ago when she moved to the North Brunswick Senior Housing building on Hermann Road.
More than a decade later, the two women will be celebrating 10 decades worth of lifetime memories: Pacia will turn 100 on June 4, while Humes will turn 100 on June 14.
“We’re happy we’re alive,” Humes said. “I never thought I’d be practically the last one in my family.”
Humes was born in Corona, New York. Her grandfather came from Europe and married in New York. When the grandfather wanted to go back to “the city,” he gave his two-family house to Humes’s father.
Humes went to high school in Manhattan via “a train and a bus.” She remembers climbing ropes, playing volleyball, sewing and reading as a child – with reading still her current favorite activity.
When she first married her husband Millard, she moved to Erie, Pennsylvania. After getting divorced in 1948 she moved back to Jackson Heights, New York.
Since her employer, Sunshine Biscuits, was moving from Long Island City, New York, to Sayreville, Humes decided to move to Parlin. This forced her to learn how to drive.
“You didn’t have to drive in New York,” she said.
Her only child, Bob, said that she made up in the past 50 years for all of the driving she didn’t do in the first 50.
Since Bob’s wife grew up in North Brunswick, Humes eventually settled in at the senior building.
She has three grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Pacia grew up in Jersey City. Her favorite hobby was autograph hunting.
“I was six minutes from New York. I spent more time in New York at the theaters and plays,” she said.
She said she met Frank Sinatra when he was “a nobody,” as well as the Andrews Sisters, Andre Baruch, Kate Smith and Dinah Shore.
She eventually sold her book of autographs, but with a huge smile said, “I still have Frankie’s.”
Pacia moved to Iselin in 1962. She married her husband Francis on June 10, 1945, and had four children: Marie Ellen, Francis, Joseph and Deborah.
Pacia worked as a salesperson for the S. Klein department store in Woodbridge.
She then settled in North Brunswick 19 years ago. She loved to bowl, and continues to cook and bake for herself. She said learning how to drive has always been on her bucket list.
She has five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
The women agreed that their most memorable moments over the past 100 years have involved raising their children. They are both generally in good health. Over the years, they’ve kept active with exercise, bingo and the Pioneers Club.
However, they also agreed that the state of society is much different than years gone by.
“It’s terrible today,” Humes said. “Children don’t enjoy their childhood anymore. … Things are too fast now.”
“We’ve been through six wars and 19 presidents,” Pacia said.
The longtime friends said they have learned “a lot” of lessons over the years, though they could not pinpointing any in particular.
Each woman was set to celebrate her significant milestone with a variety of parties: each planned to spend time with family, while also attending a luncheon held by Middlesex County for residents ages 90 and older and a special party at the North Brunswick Senior Housing building on June 9.
Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@gmnews.com.
