By ALESHA CAPONE
GREAT-GRANDMOTHER Angela Bono is living life to the full as she approaches her 100th birthday.
The Deer Park resident will celebrate her centenary on 5 February and her first great-great-grandchild is due to be born later that month.
With 10 children, 25 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren, Mrs Bono has a brood of which she can be proud.
She was born in the Italian town of St Ilario Ionio and raised in Bianco, Calabria.
Mrs Bono has lived in Deer Park for 58 years and was married to her late husband Domenic for more than seven decades.
She married Domenic at the age of 19 and the pair were inseparable, enduring five years apart when Domenic was called up to serve in World War II.
“She’s always said Dad was beautiful,” Mrs Bono’s daughter, Silvana, said.
In 1951, Domenic migrated to Australia and his young family soon followed.
Mrs Bono’s son, Tony, said at the time Deer Park consisted of open fields.
“When I came here at first I didn’t like it at all,” Mrs Bono said.
“I said to my husband, ‘You brought me to a paddock’.”
Mrs Bono went on to work at Smorgans in Tottenham and at the Footscray fish market for more than 20 years, retiring at the age of 70.
“You couldn’t keep her at home,” grand-daughter Cathy said.
Tony said his mother loved cooking, preserving food and tending to her vegetable patch.
“It was her passion,” Cathy said.
“You would always see her in the garden with a pick.”
Mrs Bono is still able to thread needles to enjoy knitting, another hobby.
“I don’t need glasses to see, I can see perfectly,” Mrs Bono said.
Cathy said her grandmother’s advice for those wanting living a long life was to eat plenty of salt and olive oil.
“No meat, lots of vegies and spaghetti, but not too much,” Mrs Bono said.
Mrs Bono also belongs to the St Peter Chanel Catholic Church in Deer Park and its Italian Prayer Group.
“She’s been going for 27 years and she’s never missed one session,” her daughter Pina said.
