Pandemic changes woman’s birthday celebration

Mary “Evelyn” Graeff has a lifetime of stories to share — a century’s worth to be exact.

Graeff, a resident of the Lutheran Home at Topton, celebrated her 100th birthday Thursday.

“Originally we were going to have a huge party with family from out of state, but with the COVID-19 situation that was not possible,” Graeff’s granddaughter Kelly Michael said.

Instead, Graeff watched through a window while her daughter and son-inlaw Linda and Tom Michael of Muhlenberg Township, their adult children and two of their grandchildren sang “Happy Birthday” and waved on the other side.

“My grandmother is the sweetest woman on the planet and deserves to be celebrated,” Kelly Michael said. “She did not have an easy life, but I never heard her utter a bad or negative word about anyone.”

A daughter of Noah and Beulah Horning, Graeff was reared in Lititz, Lancaster County.

As a girl, she used to walk downtown to the pretzel factory, founded by her great-grandfather Julius Sturgis, and help twist the pretzels, Michael said.

During the World War II era, Graeff lived with her then husband, Elmer, a Navy MP, who was station at Joint Expeditionary Base-Fort Story, Virginia Beach, Va.

“While working as waitress on the base, she spilled soup on Fred Astaire,” Michael said, noting the dancer, singer and movie star was performing on the base with the USO. “To this day, she tells waitresses this story, and of course, most have no idea who Fred Astaire was.”

Graeff and her husband divorced in the 1960s, her granddaughter said, and Graeff reared their children, Mary Cannicci, now of Florida, and twins, Scott Graeff, now of Colorado, and Linda Michael, largely on her own.

Of all the stories her grandmother tells, Michael said, one stands out as most memorable.

“When she took the bus downtown, she would sit in the back,” Michael said of her grandmother.

Back in the 1960s, Michael said, tradition relegated Black people to the back of the bus, even in the north.

“My grandmother did not think that was right, so she sat in the back,” she said.

Strongly independent throughout her life, Graeff lived alone in a Shillington apartment until a few months ago, when she moved in with Linda and Tom. After a series of ministrokes brought on memory loss, she moved to the Topton home, Kelly Michael said.

COURTESY OF KELLY MICHAEL Mary “Evelyn” Graeff, a resident of the Lutheran Home at Topton, celebrated her 100th birthday Thursday. Due to precautions taken to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Graeff’s family sang “Happy Birthday” and waved from the outside her window.

COURTESY OF KELLY MICHAEL Linda Michael of Muhlenberg Township; her daughter Kelly Michael of Exeter Township; Linda’s husband, Tim Michael; Kelly’s son, Rudy, 2; Kelly’s sister, Jill DeLong of Fleetwood; and Jill’s daughter, Emily DeLong, also of Fleetwood; gathered outside a window Thursday to celebrate the birthday of family matriarch Mary “Evelyn” Graeff, a resident of the Lutheran Home at Topton.

COURTESY OF MICHELE CABA Lorrane Berns’ family went all out to celebrate her 90th birthday with a drive-by of fire apparatus and banners at her Shillington home on Tuesday. Berns (yellow shirt) and her family at the birthday drive-by.