Atria La Jolla resident Victoria “Vicky” Ciccone celebrated her 102nd birthday on Monday, August 12 with champagne, cake and snacks.
“I have no idea why I lasted longer than everyone else,” Ciccone said. “My father died at 96 and my mother at 92. My two older brothers and my younger sister are also dead. I get up every day and think I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve met a lot of wonderful and interesting people and good things have happened to me.”
Ciccone was born and raised in Utica, NY, and it was in this small town that she achieved many important milestones: meeting her husband Vincent, raising her small family, and fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher.
In 1943, Vincent and Vicky were married when she was 21, a year after he joined the Army. They spent the first years of their marriage in the South, where the Army sent Vincent. He later served in Okinawa and Vicky returned to Utica. After the war, they lived in Utica and bought a house where they raised their daughter and son.
When her children went to school, Vicky enrolled at Utica College. She graduated in 1969, fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. She taught seventh grade English for nine years in New Hartford, NY.
On a freezing winter day in 1978, she slipped and landed under the car while clearing snow from her car. She remembers thinking, “We need to get somewhere warm.”
Her sister and her family had previously moved from New York to San Diego, so she and her husband followed suit in 1978 and purchased a new condo in Tierrasanta.
Vincent continued to work until the late 1980s, and Vicky worked as a substitute teacher and volunteered with the YWCA, the American Association of University Women, and her church, among others. For many years they enjoyed taking cruises with her sister Eva.
Today, her daughter and son, both retired, live in San Diego, and her four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren all live in California. Vincent died in 2013 and Eva in 2014. She moved to Atria on Pulitzer Place in 2016, which has proven to be a wonderful place to live. Atria has given her a second family full of friendships and community activities.
