One beer a day is one of the secrets to her longevity, as well as good genes and faith in God, she said with confidence
Margaret DiLullo is full of laughs as she sips on a Yuengling lager as she celebrates her 107th birthday surrounded by all her friends at Country Meadows Retirement Community, located in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania last week.
One beer a day is one of the secrets to her longevity, as well as good genes and faith in God, she said with confidence
DiLullo said she remembers her mother sending her to the corner bar to fill up a growler with whatever was available. She said there was always a beer in the refrigerator. It eventually became her daily tradition to kick back and enjoy a beer with friends. It was 'Yuengling and nothing else,' DiLullo said.
"It has a tang to it. I don’t know, it’s not sour, but it’s a tang that I like," she said. "And it doesn’t make you drunk, it’s satisfying."
Wearing a tiara and a sash as she walked slowly into the common area of the retirement home on Dec. 13, DiLullo joked, “Yeah, I can still walk,” as she held onto a cane, and had her caregiver close by.
“I have no aches and pains like old people. I guess I feel like 90,” she laughed as she enjoyed her birthday party.
DiLullo spoke of her faith and expressed her gratitude for living each day to the fullest. ”I’ll tell you who did it," she said as she drank from her lager. “The man upstairs. Everybody, thank God. That's your hero. Be sure to do that. I do that every day.”
She continued: ”And he doesn’t care if you drink a beer.”
DiLullo's life reads like a novel. She was born in 1914, a few months after the start of World War I, and a few years after the Titanic sank. During Prohibition, she worked in a grocery store and raised her family during the Great Depression. At only 8 years old, she said she helped her father care for her four brothers after her mother left her family because, DiLullo said, she was “too restless and carefree,” USA Today reported.
By age 12, she was already working full-time doing farm chores and after high school married in hopes of a better life. She spoke of her hardships during The Great Depression and how for a time she and her first husband only had onions for food. Life began improving for DiLullo, once she began a job at an insurance company. She said she eventually worked her way up to a supervisor position and became the breadwinner.
Her first marriage lasted nearly 50 years. And, at 67, she remarried again, to a man she called the “true love of her life.” After her second husband died after a 20-year courtship, DiLullo forged on. At 92, she had colon cancer surgery. And, at 106 was still living by herself in a second-floor apartment that apparently had steep steps.
DiLullo’s daughter, Jackie Kendall said that her mother “had a lot of things to overcome,” USA Today reported.
“She has the strength and toughness to handle," Kendall said. “She would never break down from calamity. She just handled it. 'This is what we have to do, so do it.'"
In honor of her birthday, the Pennsylvania-based Yuengling Brewery, which calls itself "America’s Oldest Brewery" gifted DiLullo twenty cases of beer once they learned how much she enjoyed their lager. Her story even made some television and radio stations and Facebook posts.
And, the birthday girl doesn't mind all the fuss, one bit.
