Retired Cheshire Teacher Celebrates 100th Birthday
 Rose Graziani welcomes kindergartners and fifth-graders from Cheshire School who came to wish her a happy 100th birthday. |
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The children skipping along the street to sing "Happy Birthday" to Rose Graziani never had her as a teacher.
But likely their parents had, or their grandparents, and maybe even their great-grandparents.
Graziani was celebrating her 100th birthday on Wednesday. And out of that century of life, more than half had been spent teaching.
"She started at a little one-room schoolhouse, Pumpkin Hook School, and had to stop when she got married," said kindergarten teacher Robin Poirot, who thought up the field trip to Main Street. "She retired at 65 and then became a substitute at Lanesborough."
Graziani had spent nearly 40 years teaching in the Cheshire schools, returning to her post when her only child, Amelia Leitch, was ready for school. She taught Amy, and her future son-in-law, Charles, and her own granddaughter, Cheryl. Then she spent 21 years as a Lanesborough substitute teacher, retiring again at 87.
She taught a lot of people.
"Of course, I remember her," said Richard Scholz, who'd seen the posting of Graziani's birthday on the fire station sign. He'd driven by her house and couldn't help but notice all the children marching down the street. "It was a like a Memorial Day parade," he laughed.
The kindergartners from Poirot and Heather Emerson's classes were buddied up with fifth-graders from Justin Luciani's class. They walked from the school and arrived at Graziani's house to find her waiting on the porch, a smile on her face.
They arrived with roses and balloons, and two large banners announcing "Happy 100th Birthday, Mrs. Graziani, with love from Cheshire School." Then they sang "Happy Birthday" and "You Are Special."
"That was wonderful," Graziani said. "I'll never forget it, never."
Born at home in Cheshire, the former Rose Massacani was one of nine siblings, three of whom are still living. She and her husband, the late Monsuette J. "Nick" Graziani were married in 1940; he died just a week before their 60th wedding anniversary.
She recalled how close the family was — three of her four sisters-in-law lived on the same street as her.
"I taught the Italian people about the government and I got them their citizenship papers," she said. "... and my own mother and father."
Graziani remembers tutoring students at her kitchen table, one child right through high school.
"When I first taught school I was paid $17.50 a week, it was $750 a year," she said.
Leitch said her mother was a gifted teacher and the reason she went into teaching as well. She had taught Grade 4 at Cheshire, right down the hall from her mother, and had also helped train Poirot when she became a teacher.
She told how her mother had been reading a story about a dog to her class of 52 first-graders one day.
"They were talking about the story and my mother was all enthusiastic about the dog in the story. 'What's the dog going to do?' ... The kids were all laughing and telling her about the dog and she was so excited about this dog.
"I saw her later and said 'you're talking about this dog. You know what that dog's going to do on the next page. You've known that dog for years. ... how can you get so excited?'"
Her mother replied, "I know. But they don't."
Another time her mother fell and broke her arm on the playground and came in to get her daughter to go outside and watch the children.
"I'm going to the hospital, I'll get my arm fixed and I'll be back in a couple hours," she told Leitch. A couple hours later, sure enough, she was back in a cast and teaching.
Graziani says her health is fine, although she suffers from some vertigo and is hard of hearing. At age 98, she passed her driver's license with flying colors, although she doesn't drive anymore.
Her secret to a long life?
"No drinking, no smoking and when you get to be 65, you want to stay young, you've got to walk three miles a day," she said "I did it for 25 years."
Scholz said Graziani remembered her former student, and recalled how growing up, he used to stop in her husband's store right across the street.
"It's nice to see people like her still around," he said. "She was a great teacher.
"You never forget your first-grade teacher."
Rose Graziani Turns 100Pupils from #CheshireMA School celebrated retired teacher Rose Graziani on her 100th birthday! #centenarian #100birthdaywishes http://tinyurl.com/qhhny4h
Posted by iBerkshires.com on Thursday, October 22, 2015
Tags: birthday, centenarian, cheshire school,
