Age does not need to be a factor in how one goes about their days. At 104, lifelong East Haven resident Rosalie Cianelli just joined the East Haven Lions Club, meeting new friends and considering new ways to help out the people in the town she loves.

“It’s a great social experience and you get to get out in the community and help others and volunteer and give back to our amazing community,” she says.

Rosalie was born on New Year’s Eve in 1918 to Mary Catherine McCarthy and Joseph Franco, and was raised in New Haven in multiple neighborhoods.

“My first house was on Hamilton Street; then we moved to Franklin Street and then to Myrtle Street in New Haven,” Rosalie says. “We moved so much because we were very poor. My dad had a barbershop in Wallingford on Center Street, so we moved to Wallingford and lived on Harrison Street.”

Although the family lived in poverty, she saw how they lived as normal.

“I didn’t realize we were poor because all the neighborhood was poor,” says Rosalie.

Living in less-than-well-to-do conditions didn’t prevent her from seeing the value of hard work demonstrated by her neighbors and understanding the process of immediately going to work once she reached adulthood.

“People worked in factories. There were dressmakers, seamstresses, carpenters, electricians,” she remembers. “We knew no difference. It was a matter of routine.”

At the age of 17, she worked in a clock shop and remembers fixing the hand clocks that would be fitted into Chevrolets. She left after getting married to her late husband, World War II veteran Peter Cianelli.

It was after Peter returned home from the Pacific theater and they had their second daughter that the family moved from New Haven to East Haven in 1949. She has lived in town ever since, finding everything she would ever need, including a close family and a place to do her one of her favorite hobbies, shopping.

“I would like to see East Haven get a Costco,” she says. “I love East Haven. I love that it is a small town that has all my conveniences, especially my church, Saint Pio, formally St. Vincent de Paul. I feel blessed to be a resident of East Haven and love my town and family.”

Rosalie is the matriarch of a family that has spawned five generations of Easties. She currently lives on a family compound with many family members, including seven grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandson.

Over the years, Rosalie has been deeply involved in town.

“I was a part of St. Vincent de Paul Ladies Guild and involved with the East Haven Historical Society,” she says. “This year, I joined the East Haven Lions Club. We have a great group of ladies who meet the second Tuesday of every month at the Twin Pines Diner for our monthly meeting.”

Her involvement doesn’t stop there. She recently volunteered at a blood drive with the club at Our Lady of Pompeii Church and plans on getting involved at the East Haven Senior Center as a chance to make new friends and play bingo.

Being a centenarian should not determine that someone “look their age,” as Rosalie maintains a youthful appearance.

When asked what her secret is, she says she uses Estée Lauder cream in the morning and at night.

“Proper food. Not elaborate, but nourishing, and vitamin pills,” she says. “And I eat chocolate every day.”