A decade after defying medical odds, Roselle woman turns 100

When Mary Cipolla, age 89, stepped into Loyola University Hospital with jaundice, weight loss and a tumor near her pancreas, Dr. Gerard Aranha knew he had a choice.

He could perform one of the most extensive operations in surgery, known as the Whipple procedure. The operation would treat Cipolla's cancer by removing parts of four organs to reconstruct her digestive tract. The Roselle woman would be the oldest of Aranha's almost 400 surgery patients.

Or he could deem the operation too risky due to her age and let Cipolla's cancer win.

"The rule of surgery is simple: The risks must never outweigh the benefits," Aranha said. "We use physiological age and not chronological age, and Mary passed all her cardiac and pulmonary tests.

"Even at 89, she was traveling to New York by herself and she was living the life of somebody much younger," he said

Not much has changed almost 11 years later, as Cipolla celebrated her 100th birthday Friday. And on Sunday about 50 friends and family celebrated near the Roselle townhouse she shares with her 83-year-old sister, Jean Pipilo.

The centurion still makes sure to dress up and wear jewelry for visitors and outings. And after almost five decades of working for companies like Andes Candies, Brach's and Turano Bakery in Roselle, she still adores chocolate.

Yes, she uses a walker, stopped driving five years ago, and her thoughts occasionally lapse. But she continues to stride through life with the same tenacity as the 89-year-old woman who woke up smiling after her surgery - and eventually considered her physical therapy a "nuisance."

"They say they key to a long life is doing things you love," said Cipolla's niece, Peggy Hodgkins. "She's lucky in that the thing she enjoys doing most is living."

But if you ask Cipolla how she bounced back from surgery to see a century, she doesn't offer any magic secret, except to say that she always joked she would live to be 100.

Instead, sitting in her home filled with knickknacks, paintings, quilts and family photos (two portraying her grandmothers), she always returns to her theory of family.

"We all take care of each other," Cipolla said. "Everybody is nice to me because I am nice to them. So when I need help, they help me. If you get too independent, you're going to be alone. It's a give and take."

And as Pipilo and Hodgkins sit next to her, surrounded by birthday cards from family, Cipolla's old labor union and even the White House, the pair said they are lucky her doctor took a chance on the surgery.

"This is another decade of living we've had with her," Hodgkins said. "We are so grateful that he didn't put her in a statistical block and say, 'Forget it.'" Like Aunt Mary says, she will live for as long as God wills her to."