NAHANT — Virginia Fiske doesn’t plan to let the fact she was born during the last worldwide pandemic stop her from heading back to work when the current one ends.
At 102 years old, Fiske, who is the town’s longest-living veteran, was already well into her retirement years when she first came to work for Town Assessor Sheila Hambleton at Nahant Town Hall in 2002.
“She’s a spitfire, let’s just say,” Hambleton, a longtime friend, said with a laugh. “She keeps asking me to bring her more work (to do at home), and she loves to go out to dinner. She’s Italian — fully Italian — and she makes very good Italian meals.”
The longtime Nahant resident, who quietly celebrated her birthday Thursday alongside her son, Lew, at their home on Karolyn Circle, was still working at Town Hall when the pandemic hit in March of this year.
One of just a handful of people world-wide with first-hand memories of World War II, Fiske proved her work ethic at a young age when she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps at 24 years old in 1942.
“Some of the service people found out my information. They called me, and I said yes, I would go along with it,” said Fiske. “At the beginning of my service I was working in the Everett National Bank, and then when I retired from the army, I went back to the bank for a couple of years and that was it.”
Raised in nearby Everett, Fiske spent nearly every summer at her family’s beach home in Nahant before moving to the oceanside community full-time in 1961 while her husband pursued a career in the restaurant business.
A fan of the town’s stunning views, Fiske, who considers herself a people person and enjoys being out and about in her community, said she’s struggled with being confined to her home in recent months.
“I like to be active,” she said, although she added that she does enjoy an occasional wine night with Hambleton.
Once the daughter and wife of funeral home managers, Fiske isn’t afraid to talk about aging. In fact, she embraces it.
“None of us know how much longer we have,” she said.
Her son, Lew, agreed, saying he’s grateful to have the quality time that he does with his mother: “There’s nobody else in our family. My brother’s passed on and I’m just by myself. It’s hard sometimes, but you have to make the best of it. I’m fortunate to have (my mother) at 102. Not too many people have that.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
