LYNN — Lynn resident and lifelong Massachusetts native Marjorie Silva will turn 100 years old Monday, Dec. 12. In a November interview with the Item, Silva reflected on her past, changing times, and her perspective on the state of the world as a centenarian.
Born in December, 1922, Silva, the daughter of a farmer, fisherman, and whaler, currently resides in her daughter Maryann’s Lynn home. While she used to pursue a wide variety of hobbies — from horseback riding to playing chess and cooking — Silva said that now, she mainly spends her time reading, sleeping, and eating her daily intake of fruits, vegetables, and vitamins.
Silva remains in good health, mobile with the aid of a cane, and cognitively razor-sharp. She said she plans to spend her 100th birthday at the Encore casino in Everett. When asked if she’d ever won big as an occasional gambler, Silva smiled, and confidently responded, “No, but this time, I’m going to.”
“If you have 100 bucks to put down, or you know, 50 bucks, you win or lose. That’s what I like, you either win or lose. It’s the love of the game. I’m not addicted to it, I don’t have to go every day or every week, but that’s one of my loves, to go and gamble at the slot machines,” Silva said.
Although she never smoked or overindulged in any vices, Silva said that until very recently, she would, some nights, enjoy wine with dinner, or one martini. Her trick, she said, was to indulge moderately with only one drink, completed over many small sips.
“You only have one. If you have two, they’re going to have to get you from under the table,” she said.
Amid a century-long chain of memories, Silva still remembers the 1930s, when she and her nine sisters tended to the family farm in Bridgewater, after moving from New Bedford. She said that her father would make wine and beer in the basement, while the family, without running water, lived off the land.
“I remember when I was eight years old, my dad used to make wine and beer. We had chickens, and pigs, we raised them, and we fed off of the earth. Whatever we planted, we ate. Fresh vegetables were always there for us. They had fruit trees all over, so we had access to all of them. You know, it was all very good— I had a really useful life on the farm,” Silva said. “
When she was 12 years old, Silva’s family moved off the farm to Chelsea. After moving out, Silva bounced around the North Shore, living in Swampscott, and Lynn for a few years. As a young woman working at the Jordan Marsh department store in Boston in the 1950s and 60s, Silva said that she never thought she would live past the age of 45.
“I can’t wrap it around my head that in a month or so I will be 100, I just cannot believe it. I remember when I was younger, I used to say to my co-workers, we were talking about ages, how old we would be, and I would say, ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll live to be 45,’ but here I am,” Silva said.
During World War II, Silva said she worked at a factory in Boston gluing rubber bolts together. She later went on to work as an elevator operator at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston, which led to a 10-year career as a receptionist for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. When she retired at the age of 72, she was serving as a receptionist under the first African American District Attorney Ralph Martin.
“When I started, they hired me as the elevator operator, and I remember the attorneys, the assistant attorneys, would go up and down. People that have gone to the courts would be up and down.One of them said to me, ‘you don’t belong on the elevator’ so I said, ‘really?,’ he says, ‘no, I want to talk to the district attorney.’ and I guess he did, because in a week or two, I was off the elevator, in the office of the district attorney. That was a big, big jump for me.”
When asked if there was anything about the world today that confused her, Silva, a fan of 1920s to 1930s fashion, said that she didn’t understand the way people dressed. When she watches the news, Silva said that the level of cruelty she sees depresses and confuses her.
“I try not to pay too much attention because it’s very depressing, and a lot of things shock me. It shocks me, the crime, the way people are cruel to each other, and what people do to other people it just hurts me. I’m happy in my own world, I really am. I don’t pay much attention to TV because there’s too much hatred,” Silva said.
Silva brought up Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the recent resurgence of anti-semitism as current events that perplexed and upset her.
“I’m not saying that everybody is like that, the majority of people are helping other people, but there’s not enough of it, not enough. I read the papers every day, why so much cruelty to one another? ” She said. “The war in Russia, what’s wrong with him? He’s a maniac. What do you need extra territory for? You know, I just don’t know, but I try not to think about stuff like that.”
Silva pointed to raising her only daughter Maryann as one of the happiest times in her life.
“I guess the most happiest was when I had my daughter. I enjoyed being her mother, I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it to the fullest. I used to make her dresses, and I stayed home and took care of her because I wanted to,” Silva said. “We used to make little fashion shows, you know, because I always wanted to be in fashion, but I didn’t. I guess I was more interested in taking care of my daughter than anything. She was my joy.”
When she goes to the doctor’s office, Silva said that the nurses and doctor’s, upon reading her date of birth, always ask her for her secret to a long and healthy life. She tells them that it’s 30 percent hereditary, and 70 percent what you put into your body.
After being asked if she had any life advice for her younger readers, Silva responded that people should be wary of crime and political corruption, and should love one another and show less hatred toward their neighbors.
“I think most of the politicians are crooked, most of them, not all. I don’t know, I guess the world today is not a happy place, I would say it’s because there’s too much corruption, too much crime, too much hatred—those are the things that need to be fixed. They can love one another, truly love one another, and not hurt anybody. There’s too much hurt in this world as it is,” Silva said.
