SCRANTON, Pa. — A woman from Scranton has spent her entire life celebrating her dozens of nieces and nephews birthdays and planning New Year's Eve parties. At 109 years old, she is not slowing down.
"You lived a good life?" Irene's nephew Paul asked. "Oh yeah," Irene agreed.
Irene Cinquegrani turned 109 years old Tuesday, and her friends and family threw her a special birthday party. There weren't quite 109 candles on her cake, but her family members joked they would be there all day lighting them if there were.
"She says, 'I know everybody has to die, I'm just not ready,'" Paul laughed.
Irene attributes her long life to a lot of things, mostly because she never got married or had any kids. She also thinks it is because she has always loved a good party.
"We're a partying family. My grandparents lived to be in their 90s until they couldn't, you just said there's a party. It's somebody's birthday. We're all there," said Irene's niece, Carole Saunders.
Aunt Irene is always the first to show up to those birthday parties. So for this very special 109th birthday, her dozens of nieces and nephews came to town from all over the country. Irene's face lit up when her nephew from Connecticut walked in.
"She's our matriarch. She will be, I think for several more years. I think she's going to last a while," Paul said.
Irene has lived in Scranton her whole life, most recently at Green Ridge Care Center. She never drove a car, and never lived alone, so she says she never had any stress in her life.
"We've always told her she's going to outlive us all. She's going to outlive us all. She told us yesterday, 'Well I'll probably be here until 110,'" Carole said.
So of course, Newswatch 16 promised Irene we would see her in a year for her 110th birthday party.