Celebrating 100 years, Mrs. Luigina Bastone marks centenary birthday surrounded by family and friends

Tim Brody - Editor

Family, friends, and community members packed Sacred Heart Parish Hall on Jan. 30 to mark an extraordinary milestone, the 100th birthday of Mrs. Luigina Bastone.
Party guests offered congratulations and warm wishes, which Mrs. Bastone warmly received, delighting in each interaction with a life she has touched.
Congratulations, blessings, and well wishes were even received from esteemed figures including Pope Leo XIV, King Charles, the Prime Minister, the Governor General, and locally Sioux Lookout Mayor Doug Lawrance. 
Born on Jan. 30, 1926, in Carolei, Italy in the region of Calabria, Mrs. Bastone (nee Segreti at the time) married her husband, Mr. Angelo Bastone in 1946.
They had four children, Erminia Maykut (nee Bastone), Maria Tripney (nee Bastone), Frank Bastone, and John Bastone.
Mr. Angelo Bastone, in 1951 at the age of 27, left his wife and two daughters in search of work, which brought him to Canada to work for the CNR. After his year of mandatory service, he found work in Sioux Lookout with Aldo Belluz at the Sunrise Bakery, and using skills he had learned in Italy, became head baker.
Son Frank Bastone recalled that by July of 1953 Mr. Angelo Bastone had saved enough money to bring his family over from Italy.
In 1962 Mr. Bastone suffered a serious accident while working in the bakery, which crushed most of the bones in his right hand. In 1963 Frank Bastone shared that his mother was forced to look for work to support the family. Mrs. Bastone found work in the laundry at the General Hospital where she worked until her retirement in 1988. 
Mr. Bastone was diagnosed with cancer and passed away on February 12, 1979.
Frank Bastone recalled growing up on Fourth Avenue North, what is now Meadwell Drive.
He and his sister Erminia said their mother has always been a strong and resourceful woman.
“She had to be. Forced to go to the workforce with my father’s injury. She walked to work every day,” Frank Bastone shared, adding that his mother was home in time to have dinner ready.
“She loved to cook and she loved sharing that with others. Family dinners were important every Sunday, as it is with many Italian families. She loved to travel. She loved the casino. She’s travelled to Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, western Canada,” he reminisced.
Erminia agreed, stating, “She was known for her cooking.”
Italian Peach Bum cookies were noted to be a specialty of Mrs. Bastone’s with Gnocchi being a favourite amongst her grandchildren, of which she has 11, with 8 great-grandchildren.
“Family was foremost. She did everything for family,” Erminia said, adding, “Whenever anybody visited that was coming from out of town, she always had homemade chicken soup ready.”
An avid churchgoer with a strong Catholic faith, Mrs. Bastone has been a member of the Catholic Women’s League (CWL) for over 70 years.
“We grew up not wealthy. Far from it. We never wanted for much… my brother and I wanted to play sports or whatever, needed a pair of skates, it was always made available for us,” Frank Bastone recalled, stating that his parents, “Scrapped together whatever was necessary.”
Frank and Erminia, along with their family, wished to thank everyone who came out to celebrate their mother’s birthday and make it a special day for her.