Charles Auda was 29 and Victoria Ricchiardi was 23 when they were married by Father Clement Stolze in Bunker Hill, on May 23, 1931.

Msgr. Auda's mother, Victoria, will turn 100 March 16

Change is more than a buzzword to Victoria Auda in Gillespie. It is a concept she understands well. The petite, gray-haired Auda will turn 100 on Palm Sunday. Although health problems have slowed her pace a bit in recent years, the mother of Msgr. Lawrence Auda is still doing things she loves.

Whenever possible, she attends daily Mass celebrated by her son, either at Ss. Simon and Jude Church, Gillespie, or in his other parish, at St. Joseph Church, Benld. She does the cooking at the rectory at Ss. Simon and Jude, where she lives with her son, the dean of the Litchfield deanery. She reads the daily newspaper, watches the news and some favorite shows on television, and goes out with friends for lunch and to shop.

"When I sit down to pray my Office, she sits down and prays the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary," says Msgr. Auda. "She has done that for so long she wore out her book. I bought her a new book, but she doesn't like it as well. All her holy cards mark favorite places in her old book."

Auda says she doesn't have a secret formula to share about her longevity or mental alertness. "I just keep busy," she says. "I crocheted until I was 97. I made lots of afghans, lots of tablecloths and doilies. But then I stopped. I just didn't want to do it any more."

She was 95 when they got a cleaning lady at the rectory. "People were always after me to get a cleaning lady, but I told them I didn't need a cleaning lady, I could do it. But then I got sick, and they got a cleaning lady." 

Her health has gotten better but they've kept the cleaning lady, who does windows, and things requiring more physical labor. "But she only comes every other week," says Auda.

The almost-centenarian has no plans to stop cooking. The northern Italian style of cooking that is part of her roots is still very much part of her daily routine. "With all the concern today about cutting fat from what we eat, I'm trying to cook healthier," says Auda. Her days of preparing dishes like bagna cauda, with rich cream and lots of butter, may be behind her, but they remain a fond memory. She still makes polenta a lot, particularly in the winter, to serve with a homemade sauce.

"She has her mind, and she loves to cook," says Msgr. Auda. "Our days start early at 5 a.m. She comes with me to Mass, then she spends the morning cooking, and we eat our main meal at noontime. I do the cleanup."

She usually takes a little nap after lunch, but is soon up reading the newspaper, catching up on current events.

Victoria Auda will celebrate her 100th birthday on March 16.

Victoria Ricchiardi was born March 16, 1908, in South Wilmington, a small town south of Joliet. Her father named her for Italy's King Victor Emmanuel who, like himself, was from northern Italy. Her mother was born in this country to Italian parents, also from the Torino Province in Italy. When the strip mine where her father worked shut down and other work in the area was scarce, they packed up their family and moved to central Illinois where the coal mines were hiring.

Her father got a job in Virden at the coal mine. When the Superior Coal Mine opened in Wilsonville, the family took the Interurban to Sawyerville. "When we got off the train, we climbed into a horse-drawn wagon to take us over the Sawyerville hills to Wilsonville, where my father went to work in the coal mine," says Auda.

She was 23 when she married Charles Auda, on May 23, 1931 by Father Clement Stolze in Bunker Hill. Her husband's family was also from northern Italy. The young couple moved to Benld, where Charles went to work in the coal mine. Their only child was born in 1934.

"We would listen each morning for the whistle to blow, to know if the mine was open for work that morning," says Auda.  "People were more neighborly back then. They helped each other. My husband would come home from work, and if a neighbor was digging a basement, you went over and helped. You don't see that now as much."

Some years were leaner than others. "I remember one year my husband only made $691 for the entire year. I remember when we didn't even have a radio, but we had a Victrola. When televisions first came out, people would go downtown in Benld to watch television through a storefront window. We walked the town sidewalks for entertainment. Now you don't see anybody walking on the sidewalks. When something was going on in town, everyone went to it."

They got their first television when their son was in high school.

"When my mother told my grandfather (her father-in-law) that his grandson was entering the seminary, he said, ‘Oh, it runs in the family,'" says Msgr. Auda. Two of his uncles in Italy were priests. He hadn't kept up his Catholic faith when he came to this country, nor had he raised his children as Catholics.

In wasn’t until Victoria Auda turned 95, and was experiencing some health problems, that she agreed to having someone help her clean the rectory at Ss. Simon and Jude Parish in Gillespie, where she lives with her son, Msgr. Lawrence Auda.

"When I was studying in the seminary my father became a Catholic," says Msgr. Auda.

Vicky, as her friends call her, and Charles were married 32 years, when he died in 1963, three years after their son's ordination. Nine years later she moved in to live with her son.

Her parents were in their 70s when they passed away. Her sister and three brothers were in their 80s when they died. At almost 100, she does show signs of her age. She wears hearing aids, has two stents in her heart, a pacemaker, and uses a cane, when she thinks of it. Although diagnosed with macular degeneration, one of her eyes is responding very well to treatment.

At 97, Pearle Dumez of Gillespie, is a  contemporary of Auda, who was in the midst of making pizzelle when she said, "I remember Vicky from when she was a store clerk in Wilsonville." Auda laments the decline of dress shops and other stores in small towns. She is not a fan of big box stores. She also says it is sad to see so many people raised Catholic not practicing their faith. 

"She says in Italian, ‘there is not enough misery' today. It is in misery that people turn to God," says Msgr. Auda.

"I'm grateful that God has let me have my mother this long. The wonderful thing is she has her mind. We are blessed having a lot of elderly people here."