Creating good memories at the Inwood Senior Center

As guests strolled into the Inwood Senior Center for the member birthday celebrations on April 12, many warmly greeted the birthday boy who was sitting by the entrance with a ‘happy birthday’ crown on top of his blue baseball cap.

“I’m turning 39,” said Nunzio Olivieri, a lifelong Lawrence resident, sitting next to his wife Theresa.

Olivieri is actually turning 85-years-old on April 25 and he and his wife have been members of the Inwood Senior Center since they got married 16 years ago. “He told me that when he looked at me he got butterflies in his stomach,” Theresa said.

Though the couple has known each other for 40 years, they were both previously married and were reunited when their respective spouses died. “His wife used to come to my parents house and when he asked how my husband was I told him that he had passed and so had is wife,” Theresa said. “And we just clicked.”

Olivieri can recall when he was a student at Number Four School in Inwood before he dropped out to become a sanitation worker for the Town of Hempstead to help his father support the family. “Those were the days,” he said.

At 52-years-old Olivieri had a stroke and despite being paralyzed on one side, Theresa said they enjoy playing Bingo, cards and exercising at the senior center. “I thank God he’s still here and that he’s well,” she said of her husband.

Just one table away from Olivieri, also with a ‘happy birthday’ crown, sat Edith Peterson, a Lawrence resident, who will be celebrating her 98th birthday on April 28.

Peterson came to the Five Towns in 1929 from South Carolina and graduated from Hewlett High School before opening up her own beautician shop on Lawrence Avenue in Lawrence. “There are different people in the neighborhood now,” she said. “Although I’m getting old, people are very nice to me. They call me and take me out.”

She became a member of the senior center 30 years ago and her late mother was also a member. “I come here every once in a while for exercise classes,” Peterson said. “I love yoga.”

Louise Scott, a 46-year Inwood resident and friends of Peterson’s for 25 years, said while she can’t remember how the two met, Scott can recall seeing Peterson drive by on her way to First Baptist Church in Lawrence. “She’s a beautiful person and she has a nice personality,” Scott said of her friend. “To walk like she walks, with no one helping her, I wish that was me!”

Inwood Senior Center Program Director Kimberly George paused in between serving the seniors lunch to reflect on what it feels like to see two of her members celebrating their 85th and 98th birthdays. “It blesses my spirit that they’ve been around so long,” she said. “It’s nice to see that they’re alive and well and to meet their friends from the past.”

Despite celebrating birthdays once a month for senior center members, these two birthday milestones bring great joy to Bertha Pruitt, the executive director of the Five Towns Community Center where the senior center calls home. “This is a special day for both,” Pruitt said of Peterson and Olivieri. “This is a very memorable event and that’s what we’re here to do; make good memories here at the center.”

Peterson hopes to continue to enjoy the wonderful neighbors that surround her Lawrence home, in a community she’s lived in for more than 80 years. “I’m going to keep taking care of myself,” she said.

While Olivieri was overwhelmed to celebrate his 85th birthday, he exuded happiness and smiles as friends brought him gifts and wished him a ‘happy birthday.’ “I cannot explain it,” he said tearing up. “I’m happy I’m here.”