Agostina Lugaro celebrating her 105th birthday

In a simple but touching ceremony among family members and close friends, Agostina Lugaro has happily celebrated her 105th birthday in Orange County. In 1903, Agostina was born in Vado Ligure, Italy, to the Ferro-Peluffo family. She left Vado on her honeymoon in 1923, as Mrs. Giacomo Lugaro, bound for a new home in Los Angeles.

A lifetime later, when Giacomo was 97, he would say to her, time and time again, "It was a wonderful, beautiful life, wasn't it?" The answer was always: "Yes, my Giacomo, it was!" Agostina worked in fashion design, Giacomo in the foundry, but soon they bought a farm, outside Los Angeles, in Montebello, where they grew vast fields of flowers that imitated the rainbows hovering above their happy lives.

Then there was the depression. Giacomo came home from the market one day with the flowers still in his truck. Agostina said, "Drive me downtown and leave me on the corner. I will sell the flowers." She did. Her corner became one of the city's first sidewalk flower stands, and when the economy recovered, she returned to her life as field hand, housewife, and soon to be mother.

Her days were filled with the joy of farm work and friends’ visits. Agostina remembers that she sometimes said to their family of friends, "I am very busy, the flowers have to be packed for market! If you want dinner, you know where everything is. Go cook and call me when it is ready!" In fact, her doctor found her, on her feet, surrounded by friends, flowers, and workers, finishing the packing just hours before the birth of her first son.

In 1957, the Lugaro family of four moved their ranch to Anaheim, where Agostina still resides. When she was 97, she traveled to Vado Ligure with her youngest son George, for a month of visiting with family and friends, and last week, she made gnocchi, by hand, for a family dinner. If you talk with her, a century of memories tumble from her as intact and fresh as the moment they were lived.

Agostina's days are becoming quieter now, but each and every one is still greeted with deep love and appreciation. L’Italo-Americano extends sincere congratulations to Agostina for having reached such extraordinary milestone in her life.

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