Celebrating a century of memories





YOUNG AT HEART—Agoura resident Madelyn Perry, right, gets a warm greeting from family friend Angie Fonte, also from Agoura Hills. Perry celebrated her 105th birthday at Agoura Hills Senior Retreat on August 17. (Her actual birth date is Aug. 19.) The party featured decorations, singing and, of course, a birthday cake. Perry’s family also attended the festivities. Her daughter Marion De Angelo, left, of Oak Park joined in the fun.

YOUNG AT HEART—Agoura resident Madelyn Perry, right, gets a warm greeting from family friend Angie Fonte, also from Agoura Hills. Perry celebrated her 105th birthday at Agoura Hills Senior Retreat on August 17. (Her actual birth date is Aug. 19.) The party featured decorations, singing and, of course, a birthday cake. Perry’s family also attended the festivities. Her daughter Marion De Angelo, left, of Oak Park joined in the fun.

Agoura Hills resident Madelyn Perry says her favorite activity is a good, old-fashioned sing-along. Her favorite song is “Que Sera, Sera.”

But on Aug. 19 at the Agoura Hills Senior Retreat community, the song sung Perry’s honor was “Happy Birthday.”

She had just turned 105.

Until recently, Perry has enjoyed good health and was even able to maneuver her walker through shopping malls.

Although she celebrated her 105th birthday from a wheelchair, the centenarian still has spunk.

“It just makes me want to swear,” she said about losing some of her independence. But she’s learned not to resist change and adapts to her situation by remaining close to family, enjoying the company of the friends she’s made at the senior retreat and reflecting on the good times of her life.

“ Everyone is her friend here,” said Ahuva Barzion, executive director for Agoura Hills Senior Retreat. “We all love her sense of humor.”

Perry moved to the retreat when she was 98, after her home in Reseda was broken into. Her daughter, Marion De Angelo, 82, lives in Oak Park. Her son Michael Perry, 72, is a professional musician who performs in Reno. Her extended family includes two grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Perry was the eldest of nine siblings and has outlived them all. She was born in 1906 to Italian immigrants who shortly before had entered the United States through Ellis Island and settled in Chicago.

In 1955, Perry moved to California with her husband, a successful tool and die maker.

A homemaker, Perry loved to cook, shunning boxed and frozen foods, and she made her own clothes.

“I was so short I always had to alter everything,” she said, “so I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll just make them all myself,’” and she continued to do so until she was 98.

When she was 57, Perry’s 59-year-old husband died from a heart attack. She never remarried. The widow sold the Encino home she and her husband had paid cash for and moved to the smaller home in Reseda, which became her fondest memory. She learned to do her own gardening, repairs and improvements and earned income by providing child care services.

“It was my first experience with independence and I loved it,” she said.

Perry joined a travel group and remembers a moment that still lights up her eyes—meeting Englebert Humperdinck on her 95th birthday.

“He shook hands with everyone else but kissed me on the cheek,” she said.

Perry said she never tires of sourdough toast and Special K cereal. And although she’s a Catholic she’ll slip into the retreat’s Friday Shabbat service for challah bread, which she adores.

To what does Perry attribute her long life?

She claims that God doesn’t seem to want her, or the devil either, for that matter, and that’s okay with her.


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