CALENDAR GIRL
At 84 years old, a city ‘Leap Year Baby,’ Sylvia Roark, was able to celebrate a real birthday Saturday thanks to February 29
When Sylvia Roark last celebrated her actual birthday, she turned 80-years-old and got a rather big celebration of that milestone.
That was because Roark had only celebrated 20 of her official birthdays at that point due to the quirky calendar correction of February 29, a day that rolls around once every four years.
Outside of Leap Year, there is no Feb. 29, and, as a result on the years in between,
Roark doesn’t get a real birthday-- even if people remember that she added another year in age as Leapling.
On Saturday, Roark was celebrating another real birthday, this time as an 84-yearold, and remembering the most important thing in her life, her family.
“I’m 84, can you believe that,” Roark, a resident of Chateau Clare Apartments at 16 Greene St., joked while recalling how she has celebrated just 21 actual birthdays during that time.
It is her family that always makes her birthday a special one and Roark said she didn’t yet know what their birthday surprise would be this year.
Usually it is going out to a nice dinner and Roark said she would find out their plans when she saw them later in the day.
“My family has always been there for me,” Roark, a mother of five, explained.
Roark’s family and friends at Chateau Clare went all out when her last birthday rolled around and she ended up having two parties as a result.
“The 80th birthday was the biggest birthday I ever had in my life,” Roark recalled.
“Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt had sent me a bunch of big balloons and the Attorney General of Rhode Island (Peter Kilmartin) sent me a certificate about my special day,” she said.
Her friends at Chateau Clare put on a special party in the residence’s community room that her family participated in and brought special gifts and prizes for the residents as well.
She was also honored at the St. Clare bingo night with yet another birthday cake and more well wishes, she said.
“It was a ball. Everything was such a surprise, and then there were all the gifts and cards,” Roark said.
Her daughters, Judy and Cindy, had worked for three weeks to make necklaces for the event and special purses for the women attending, she noted. In the four years since, Roark said she has faced some difficulties with her health and marked transitions for a number of her longtime friends at St. Clare.
A resident of St. Clare for 17 years, Roark said she knew many residents who had been there for 30 years. Many have since moved on to nursing homes, living with their families or passed away.
“There are only about seven or eight now that have been here during the whole time I have been here,” she said.
Roark finds it interesting that long before she ever moved in to St. Clare, her late husband, Fred Larson, had actually once been a lay teacher when it was the St. Clare High School, one of Woonsocket’s parochial schools.
Roark’s more recent health challenges have included rheumatoid arthritis and some other conditions requiring regular doctor visits but overall she has been on the mend.
“I’ve got good doctors and they take care of me,” she said.
They also know how special her birthday is, and Roark explained how everyone was wishing her a happy birthday when she went to an doctor appointment last week and the office staff made a point of noting that her real birthday was coming up.
People do recognize Leap Year birthdays to be unique, and Roark explained how a neighbor, Chris Coyne, made note of her birthday’s rarity while stopping by on Saturday to wish her happy birthday with a card and gift.
“She told me she looked it up on the computer and it said that only one out of every 1,500 people are born on Leap Year,” Roark said.
That was not lost on her parents, her father Arthur and mother Agnes, and her four siblings growing up she said while remembering how her family would make big deal out of her birthday when it came up every four years.
“I was the special one,” she said.
Her family continues that tradition by always doing something special for her when it come around, and one of her grandchildren, Justin, in fact called to wish her happy birthday while she talked with a reporter.
Her neat and spacious apartment is mostly decorated with family mementos, pictures of her children, Judy, Cindy, Brian and Philip, her late son, Clifford, and her eight grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. There are no other Leaplings in the family, just her, Roark noted.
Some of the family photos are of Roark’s special birthday outings in Narragansett where the family likes to spend a lot of time, even those who come if from out of state -- from Texas, Michigan, and Ohio.
She also has a guitar resting against the wall near her desk, that is topped with a Marine and Navy medics cap.
They belonged to Clifford, who she lost in 2010 to a fight with cancer.
“He loved to play the guitar and he and I were like this,” Roark said while crossing her fingers. “He was a hot ticket.”
Clifford’s children are among those who continue make her birthday’s special and in the photographs on walls of her apartment with all the rest. And it was Clifford’s son, Justin, who was calling to highlight Roark’s birthday with the news that he had just got a promotion at work.
“I love my birthday,” Roark said after talking with her grandson. “It’s really something to look forward to,” she said.