Welcome to a newsletter themed at the intersection of longevity and wine history. 🍷
The year Grandma Kay was born a movie ticket cost 15 cents. She turned 104 yesterday.
At age six, she met my grandfather Mario Gemello in grammar school. It was 1927. Thirteen years later, a pre-Bugsy-Siegel-era Las Vegas played host to their wedding. It was followed by drinks, dancing, and gambling at The 91 Club, a Prohibition-era underground club. In 1999, they returned to Las Vegas to visit me, where I worked as a journalist. I took them to mass at St. Joan of Arc Church, where they got married nearly six decades earlier. The church still stands just off the glittering lights of the Fremont Street Experience. It’s one of the few, if not only, Las Vegas landmarks to live on past its centennial. It opened in 1910.
November 17, 1940
Mario died of prostate cancer after his 89th birthday in 2005. They were married for 64 years. Many family members suspected that Grandma Kay would be susceptible to the “broken heart syndrome,” where longtime spouses die close together. How wrong we were.
Nearly three years later, Kay became a great grandmother for the third time when Alexis Ferguson, my niece, was born within a week of Kay’s birthday. This launched a tradition, a combined birthday cake photo op, which has continued for 17 years.
For Kay’s 90th birthday, the family celebrated at the Giants game in a VIP suite.
Alexis, 3, hungers for a cupcake.
COVID Lockdown: Posing six-feet-apart.
In 2021, we started working with the Giants on a plan to commemorate her centennial by having her throw out the first pitch on her birthday. However, COVID-era conditions made it difficult to execute the plan. Therefore, we made a creative adjustment. She was able to showcase the cannon of an arm she still had. Watch the Video.
Also that year, Kay was asked to join the New England Centenarian Study, participating in a series of phone interviews, questionnaires and submitted blood samples. Researchers then proceeded to analyze and compare her genes with other centenarians in the study. I interviewed Dr. Tom Perls, the founder of the study, about what makes centenarians unique.
If you’re new here—hi, I’m Kevin!
I’m the author of 🍷 Rain on the Monte Bello Ridge,🍷 my forthcoming memoir about health, aging and winemaking. (Read the origin story of the book.) 🍇
The Centenarian Playbook is my newsletter, which features:
Healthy aging/longevity tips and stories from Grandma Kay’s long life.
Wine history & stories of the Gemello Winery
Ancestry & family research tips
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What a beautiful story and a helluva life. Happy 104th Birthday! 🥳🎂🩵
The photos of the generational "gals" are priceless!