Maria Buzzeo remembers traveling through downtown New Canaan by horse and buggy and buying chicken and eggs at what we now know as Waveny Park.
The New Canaan resident, born here in 1913, is celebrating her 103rd birthday on August 15th.
She spent her early childhood on a farm off of Ponus Ridge Road where she was raised by her parents, Thomas and Antoinette Socci, who were Italian immigrants. Buzzeo was baptized at St. Aloysius Church, located on Forest Street at the time.
In 1918, the family moved back to Italy, but her mother passed away due to a tragic illness on the voyage, according to two of Buzzeo’s children, Maria Bianco and John Buzzeo.
At the age of 17, Buzzeo married her late husband, Michele Buzzeo, whom she was married to for 62 years. They had seven children together, the oldest now 88 and the youngest 68.
Buzzeo did not return to New Canaan until 1959. She has been happily living here ever since.
Today, Buzzeo is blessed with 27 grand-children, 48 great-grand-children, and 13 great-great-grand-children.
She has been living with daughter Maria for 27 years, who says that they still carry on many of her traditions, such as her Italian meals on the holidays.