WWII vet marks 100th birthday with celebratory car parade
NORWALK — A parade of cars drove by World War II veteran Nicholas Samodel’s house on Jomar Road Sunday morning to celebrate his 100th birthday.
The parade celebrating the Army Air Corps veteran began at 11 a.m., with the cars meeting in the Chickfil-A parking lot on Connecticut Avenue, organizer Barbara Cartsounis said. She anticpated about a dozen cars would participate to celebrate the milestone birthday.
“I’d never planned a car parade, so we were like, ‘What’re we going to do?’ But it’s unfolding in such a magical way,” Cartsounis said.
Cartsounis, a friend of Samodel, met the veteran while acting as a guardian for a trip to Washington, D.C., with her father a decade ago, she said. The trio immediately connected and while Cartsounis’ father, a WWII Navy veteran, died five years ago, Samodel and Cartsounis have remained friends.
Samodel lives alone in Norwalk, but has five adult children living in Connecticut, Boston, and North and South Carolina, Cartsounis said. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Samodel has remained cheery, Cartsounis said.
“He is amazing,” Cartsounis said. “To me, he’s like everybody’s idol. It’s rare that I talk to him and he says he’s depressed. He isn’t a moany groany person. He is always upbeat.”
Initially, the parade was set to be a surprise for Samodel, but about a week before his birthday on the Dec. 20, Samodel found out about the parade and was excited, Cartsounis said.