Woman celebrates 110th Birthday | 11alive.com

TAMAQUA, Pa. — Since 2014, Mary Rapach has strolled the halls of the Greenwood Center for Nursing and Rehab in Tamaqua, just two years before she celebrated a century of life. 

Activities director Nick Zigmant has walked right alongside her for the past few years. On March 25th, Rapach celebrated her 110th birthday.

“When I first got here, I think she was only like 102, so I got to be here for the last 7 or 8 years watching her grow, and she’s pretty much the same old Mary,” says Zigmunt. 

Mary was born and raised in Harwood, a neighborhood just outside of Hazleton, back in 1916. A century and a decade of life lived make ‘same old Mary’ the oldest resident in Schuylkill County. 

“The last couple of years, more exciting just because you don’t really hear someone turning 110, let alone 100 nowadays anymore, so, you know, slowed down a little bit, but I mean she still looks great for her age,” says Zigmunt. 

She still wears her signature look, which she sported when generations of grandchildren and great-grandchildren celebrated her life alongside her. “She wears her pearls every day,” says Zigmunt.

Marion Link is a fellow resident of the nursing home and a friend of Rapach. “Mary’s birthday! God bless her. Yeah, I think she’s so great. She’s a wonderful person,” says Link. Link is close to this same milestone. 

With 99 years of experience, she hopes to follow in Rapach’s footsteps. “Oh, I thought that was great to be 110! Yes, I had a great-granddaughter who told me I was going to live to be 120, so wouldn’t that be a miracle?”

Employees at the nursing home say they hope to be celebrating two miracles next year, Link’s 100th birthday and Rapach’s 111th.