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At 95, Still Kicking And Volunteering
By MARC J. YACHT Special to the Tribune
Published: Nov 6, 2006
Lily DeLuca, 95, needs no glasses or hearing aids, and she
recently renewed her driver’s license. She is a window to the 20th
century, with a flawless memory, sense of humor and piercing bright eyes.
DeLuca recalls World War I and World War II.
She mentions witnessing Lindy (Charles Lindberg) flying the “Spirit of St.
Louis” on his historic flight to Paris
in 1927. She was 15.
She came to Hudson in 1977 after working 22 years as a
nurse for the Lady’s International Garment Workers Health Clinic. The New York City union
facility provided members medical services and occupied the 22nd
through 26th floors of a high-rise. The health center served 3,200
people a day.
Nurse Lily was closing the clinic one
night when she noticed a dimming of the lights about her. From the 23rd
floor, she observed slow but methodic outages throughout the city. She turned
to a friend, concerned her vision was failing. Her acquaintance nervously
relayed that, yes, the lights were going out in New York.
DeLuca quickly organized water collection in
various pitchers and sinks. Remaining staff joined her. When the building’s
power finally failed, the plumbing ceased to function. And with the city
cloaked in darkness, Lily remembers a beautiful full moon rising alongside
the Empire State Building.
About 250 people remained in the
clinics. Without elevators and considering the dangers of negotiating dark
stairwells, Lily and the others settled in for the night. Using wax and
gauze, folks from physical therapy made candles. Two doctors remained in the
building, and, along with stranded staff, offered care to remaining patients.
One woman suffered a heart attack.
Calm On The Streets
DeLuca was surprised by an unexpected visitor
at midnight. Her husband had driven from Brooklyn
and, with matches to light the way, climbed the stairwell to the 23rd
floor to find her. He described his trip from Brooklyn
as easy. The streets were quiet. Citizens conducted traffic at intersections.
People remained calm, and their cooperative spirit would be well documented
in descriptions of the incident.
Lily DeLuca
had witnessed the “Great Northeast Blackout” of 1965.
Historians would describe the event as
starting at the Ontario-New
York state border near Niagara Falls,
then continuing with outages throughout New York,
Ontario, most of New England and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
It remains the largest blackout in history, having affected more than 30
million people.
DeLuca leaned back when asked to describe
other significant events in her life. She smiled and asked, “Did you hear of
the Children’s Fresh Air Fund?” She described her work as a volunteer. The
fund was sponsored by the now-defunct New York Tribune.
Hundreds of poor inner-city kids would
be given two weeks in the country, usually Upstate New York or Pennsylvania. Each
volunteer was responsible for 36 youths who would be transported by train to
accommodating families. Many youths had never seen a cow or left the city.
For these children, milk came from bottles and meat from packages. Since
1888, 1.7 million needy New York
children have been served by this program, which continues today.
On a sad note during our conversation, DeLuca mentioned the death of her husband from cancer.
She related that even with Medicare and a supplement, his cost of care
depleted their savings, forced the sale of a home and placed her in debt.
They had looked forward to their golden years, but he fell ill shortly after
their retirement.
‘No One Locked Their Doors’
DeLuca reflected on friendlier neighborhoods
in the past. “No one locked their doors before; now everybody locks their
doors,” she said. She mentioned three break-ins at her Hudson home, which triggered her move to a
mobile home park. She finds that community friendly and secure.
DeLuca volunteered for the Pasco County
Health Department after coming to Florida
in 1977 and sat at the bedside of my predecessor, Robert D. May, during his
terminal illness in 1988. May hired me.
Reflecting on the passing of her two
sons, DeLuca says, “This is life and how life goes,
and I feel they are in a better place.” Aside from many grandchildren and
great-grandchildren, she boasts of three great-great grandchildren.
What does she do today? She teaches
crochet at Community Aging & Retirement Services’ Phil Mishkin and Bayonet Point facilities during the week. She
sings in her church choir and teaches a Sunday school class there. She leads
a sing-along every third Friday at an area nursing home.
She claims Tuesday is her day of rest.
DeLuca also serves as house chairwoman of the
Hudson Community Club and stated that Hudson
sent more soldiers per capita to fight in WWII than any other community in
the nation. She has the spark and energy of someone half her age.
As to what she recommends to a younger
generation, she offers this: “Keep busy, and open your heart to people.
Remember, everybody in the world is important.”
At 95, Lily practices exactly that.
The writer, the director of the Pasco County Health
Department, occasionally writes about Pasco’s
senior volunteers as part of a “living history” series.
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