Celebrating a long life

“I was very lucky—I had a happy, wonderful life,” said Lily Burnstone on Nov. 3, at the celebration of her 107th birthday. “Maybe that’s why I’m here.”

Born in Brooklyn in 1902, Burnstone grew up in the city with her siblings—one brother and three sisters—before marrying her husband, Murray, an auctioneer. Eventually, the couple made their way to Rockville Centre, where Burnstone spent many happy years.

She continued to live in the village even after her husband died 37 years ago. She was independent and vivacious until a medical condition made her unable to live on her own anymore (although she’s still vivacious). After that, Burnstone moved in with her daughter, Joan Stadt (owner of the S. Park Avenue shop, Joan Stadt Interiors) and her husband Edmund 25 years ago.

“As she got older, she got older gracefully,” said Stadt, who is over 75 herself, of her mother. “She didn’t lose any of her spark and her wit. She’s funny. She’s got a very up personality. It’s really fantastic.”

Burnstone lived with Stadt and her husband in Rockville Centre for 25 years, but recently moved to Garden City with Stadt after Edmund died.

“My husband passed away and the house was just too big,” Stadt said. “And I couldn’t get anything else at the time [in Rockville Centre].”

But even though they live in Garden City, the two still spend most of their time in Rockville Centre at Stadt’s store.

“She comes to the store, she greets people, she reads,” Stadt said. “And I think that’s what’s keeping her going—reading and seeing people when they come over to see her and say hi.”

Burnstone loves to read what she calls “nice books”—romance novels like those that Danielle Steele writes (“I think she relives her past,” joked her daughter). And her personality makes her perfect for greeting people in her daughter’s store.

“My mother is not only beautiful, but she’s very warm and very outgoing,” Stadt said. “And people just sort of gravitate toward her. They always did, even years ago.”

“I have an awful lot of friends, and I met lovely people in the store,” said Burnstone.

Stadt is somewhat surprised that, even in her old age, her mother is still the same woman she was years ago. And she kept her beauty, which is a word that Stadt often used to describe her.

“She won a beauty contest when my daughter was very little. She was the Most Glamorous Grandma,” Stadt said. “She was always a beautiful woman.”

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