Cecile A. (Brewer) Santella was born in Massachusetts Oct. 26, 1912 to Adeland and Marie Rose (Provencal) Bazinet.

At the age of 16 she went to work as a loomer at a wool mill in Fisherville, Mass. On July 4, 1934 she was married to Homer Arthur Brewer. When her husband died in 1948 she had to go back to work and rather than going on what was the beginning of welfare she took a very hazardous job with a chrome plating company to support her four children, Homer, Norman, Ann and Paul.

At the age of 45, she went back to school and became an LPN and worked at a state hospital in North Grafton Mass. She was remarried in 1961 to Nick Santella of Marlboro, Mass.

Retiring at the age of 65, she and her husband Nick moved to Deltona, Fla. for 35 years. Nick passed away at the age of 96 and she stayed in Florida.

Cecile moved to Oak Harbor in 2002 to live with her son and his wife, Paul and Flo Brewer.

“Everyone knows she has never been afraid of hard work!” Paul Brewer, former Oak Harbor City Councilman, said of Cecile.

When asked why she lives so long she replied, “Hard work never killed anyone.”

She keeps her mind sharp by doing word-finds, puzzles and playing Bingo and watching her favorite TV game shows, Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune.

“Happy 100th birthday, Cecile!” her family said.