The Bristal Resident Celebrates Her 100th Birthday

Lillian Greenwald a resident of The Bristal Assisted Living at Bethpage celebrated her 100th birthday at The Bristal at Bethpage. Mrs. Greenwald, a 60-year resident of Forest Hills, Queens, moved to The Bristal at Bethpage after first living at The Bristal at Jericho. She made the move after she built a close friendship and special bond with Sara Anne Huenke, The Bristal at Jericho’s Community Relations Coordinator who was promoted and transferred to The Bristal at Bethpage. Lillian, who became a second grandmother to Sara, insisted if Sara was moving, she was going with her.

Huenke, a resident of Amityville, is 41, married and the stepmother of a 14-year-old daughter, says she and Lillian bonded from the moment they met. She says Lillian stops by her office to chat each and every day. The conversations she says range from fashion, to family, their shared Jewish heritage, to what Lillian is going to have for lunch. Huenke says Lillian is like a second grandmother to her and is grateful that her own Grandmother Sondra, who is 90, is back on Long Island after many years of living in Florida.

Lillian was joined by her son Rick of Old Bethpage, his wife Lisa, other family members and her friends and neighbors at The Bristal at Bethpage.

Lillian and her late husband Bill were married for 48 years until his passing in 1998. They met in the pool at the Livingston Manor Hotel in the Catskills. Lillian didn’t swim and was terrified of the pool, but something told her she needed to get in the water. Bill saw how nervous she was, approached her and they spent the rest of their lives together.

Lillian is a 1943 graduate of Evander Childs High School in the Bronx and worked as a bookkeeper before becoming a homemaker to raise Rick and his late brother Bobby. She is described as a social butterfly who can enter a room knowing no one, and leave the room having made new friends.

Lillian looks to be in her mid 80s and never leaves her apartment without makeup. She credits her long life to always being active. In her younger years she was a great athlete at 100 she says, the key is to just keep walking.