With red lipstick to match her pretty red sweater, Ruby Trujillo-Cordova celebrates her 100th birthday last weekend. This fashionable, music-loving great-great-great-grandmother is a resident at Regent Park nursing home in Holyoke. — Courtesy photo
This photo of Ruby Trujillo-Cordova gives people a sneak peek of what’s inside a CD case — a special recording of her own music. Her family and friends remember how much she loved singing and playing guitar. — Courtesy photo
Jaslene Dominguez, at right, a Holyoke fourth grader, celebrates with her 100-year-old great-great-grandma Ruby Trujillo-Cordova on Monday, Sept. 19, at Regent Park. — Darci Rodriguez | The Holyoke Enterprise
Centenarian Ruby Trujillo-Cordova keeps her wedding photo in her bedside table at Regent Park nursing home. — Courtesy photo
The life of the party
Red and silver balloons greeted friends, a table was filled with refreshments, and it wouldn’t be a proper party without some music.
A CD was popped into the stereo, and beautiful guitar sounds filled the room. The music was recorded by none other than Ruby Trujillo-Cordova, the distiguished guest at the event.
Her nails were painted red with lipstick to match, because it was a special occasion for Trujillo-Cordova — her 100th birthday party.
Family, residents and staff members helped her celebrate Monday, Sept. 19, at Regent Park nursing home in Holyoke. It capped a weekend full of fun, including another party with family on Saturday and her actual birthday on Sunday.
“She was always the life of the party,” said granddaughter Jeanette Almeida.
Trujillo-Cordova, who was born in Montrose on Sept. 18, 1922, started playing guitar at age 11. “She was always singing,” said Almeida. “She knew hundreds and hundreds of songs.”
Music was everything to her, she added, and she enjoyed life to the fullest.
Trujillo-Cordova is a sister to seven, a mother to four, and a grandma, great-grandma, great-great-grandma and great-great-great-grandma to over 60.
Almeida said she loved to spoil her grandkids when they were younger and was good at writing letters.
She’s also famous for her cooking and baking skills, including tamales and cookies called biscochitos.
Trujillo-Cordova got her driver’s license and pierced ears in her 60s and was active with swimming and tap dancing at a senior center in Utah. She has also been involved with the Catholic church.
It’s perhaps because of her happy memories, healthy eating and sweet spirit that Trujillo-Cordova has hit this major milestone.
She came to Holyoke a couple of decades ago. “She’s always been a blessing to us,” said Joni Taylor, director of nursing at Regent Park, who led the celebration Monday.