Turning 100 years old doesn’t happen every day — but it does more often than usual at one New York nursing home. 

The Glendale Home, a 210-bed facility in Schenectady County, NY, hosted its annual centenarian celebration in late September with a whopping nine residents all over the age of 100. 

The group of residents celebrated were: Irene Healy, the oldest at 103; Hester Male and Mary Reber, both 102; Adele Lehrten, Dorothy Frederick and Winifred Tyrell, Mary Pomato and John Marciniak, all 101; and Linda Seen, who is 100.

“We think this is a big deal for our residents,” said Tracie Denny, director of activity services. She explained that the annual celebration usually honors only about six or seven residents. 

“Hopefully next year we’ll have even more,” she added. 

The honorees were presented with individual certificates from local officials, while State Sen. James Tedisco gave each of them a citation and special coin that acknowledged their tax contributions over the years.  

“I would venture to guess, if we added up all the tax dollars you paid over the years collectively here, which kind of gets close to, unbelievably, 1,000 years – my goodness, we could balance the New York state budget,” Tedisco joked to local media

One resident, Marciniak, credited his walking for his long life. 

“Five-mile walks I took as often as I could after I retired,” he said. “During my working years, I used to sneak my lunch at my desk — I had an office — and ate it gradually so I could spend one hour walking as much as I could.”

One hundred and one is “a milestone,” he acknowledged, adding, “God was good enough to give me a long life.”

And a very remarkable recent birthday ceremony.