Looking back on 100 years
Billerica woman celebrates milestone birthday
BILLERICA >> Age is a funny thing in how it can affect different people. How one person appears at age 90 can be how another person appears at 70.
For Billerica’s Phyllis Cibulski, if you didn’t already know that she had been alive for a century, you would be forgiven for not believing it.
Phyllis was born as the ninth of 13 siblings on Feb. 23, 1924 in South Branch, Nova Scotia, where she lived until coming to Massachusetts as a teenager in 1938 to help her sister with her children after her sister had just had another baby. Due to the immigration laws at the time, she had to return to Nova Scotia after a year, but came back soon after and met the man who would become her husband, Walter Cibulski. At the time of their marriage, Phyllis was 16, and Walter was 20, and soon after he would serve in World War II. The couple would be married for 67 years before Walter’s death in 2007. In 1953, Phyllis would proudly become a citizen of the U.S.
“I had to go to school to learn all about the United States and the government and everything,” Phyllis recalled while sitting in her living room a few days before her 100th birthday.
In a far cry from the modern HVAC systems and school buildings we have become accustomed to, Phyllis vividly remembers her very first job at the age of about 12, when she was tasked with arriving at the one-room schoolhouse early before anyone else to start the fire that would keep the room warm for the day. Her wage for that work was $5 a year.
“It was a one-room school with one teacher. There were 30 pupils from kindergarten to grade 11,” said Phyllis. “I had to keep the fire going all day during school hours, and I had to clean the ashes and everyone out before I could light the fire again.”
She currently lives in a duplex in Billerica, sharing a wall with her youngest son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Lili Cibulski. In her first couple of decades in the country, Phyllis lived all over the area, from Bedford to Burlington and then to Wilmington before settling in Billerica in 1954. During her working years she held several jobs, leading up to a 13-year stint at USCI, a manufacturer for medical supplies where she did quality control until her retirement a whole 35 years ago.
“I told them I was going to retire the day I turned 65, and I just about did,” said Phyllis. “When I retired, we bought a brand new motorhome and we traveled a lot. The only place we haven’t been to is California.”
She recalled vividly how the family, who had seven motorhomes traveling together, had attempted to get to California during one trip. They were unable to do so, however, because they had to cross a desert and it was far too hot that day for officials to allow people to drive across, because if their motorhome broke down, they would be on their own in the heat.
“How can I remember those things when I can’t remember what happened yesterday?” said Phyllis with a chuckle.
When one talks with someone who has reached