St. Clair Shores resident turns 101

ST. CLAIR SHORES — St. Clair Shores Resident Tanina Lafata will turn 101 on Oct.14. She said she’s had a wonderful life, though it wasn’t perfect.

Tanina, known as Tina, said she grew up with a strict father in Detroit and worked at his grocery store. Tony Lafata, her son, said she doesn’t have good memories of her childhood, but Tanina said her mother was wonderful.

She graduated from eighth grade and later returned to night school at Lake Shore where she graduated as valedictorian.

Tanina eloped with her husband at the age of 16. When she first met him, her sister, who went to school with him, said he was no good.

“The more she said it, the more I liked him,” Tanina said. “Typical kid today.”

The family moved into the Shores in 1957 when Tony was a freshman in high school and her youngest son, Angelo, was around a year old. Tony said it was a brand-new street.

“There were still a lot of homes on the street that were like summer cottages,” Tony said. “People from different areas would come here when this was like a vacation town at one time many years ago.”

Growing up, they met at Tanina’s house every Sunday for dinner with multiple pies, cakes and other foods for everyone.

“This was the gathering place, and she had, what you got, four sisters and one brother, they all came,” her daughter-in-law Sharon Lafata said. “They were all married, and they all had kids.”

“It was kind of like the meeting place on Sunday for the whole family,” Tony said. 

Sharon also said Tanina and her family were extremely tight. Many of the other family members were also close to each other.

Tanina said her husband was also a little tough, but she mellowed him. She sold Avon products, going door to door for around 50 years. Tanina led an active life, tap dancing or doing other kinds of exercise. Tony said she would still be dancing if she still had her vision.

After her husband passed away, Tanina started dancing at the Polish Century Club. She met a few people there and while walking at other places. One of the men she met, she ended up seeing long-term.

Tanina has two children, two daughter-in-laws, and a collection of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren spanning five generations. For her 100th birthday, most of the family gathered to celebrate with both Angelo’s and Tony’s side of the family.

On their parents’ 50th anniversary, Tony and Angelo threw a wedding for them at Lakeland Manor.

“And I thought to be married 50 years, I deserve a veil and a gown, right?” Tanina said. 

Tanina said she danced until around midnight that night.

She said her two sons and two daughter-in-laws are wonderful.

Tanina said life is different today and that the children are different. What is considered a social norm today was not as common back then. Tony said when she was born in 1924, a new car was around $600. The house she lives in was around $14,900 when she first bought it.

“What you could buy then as opposed to what you can buy today is a lot different,” Tony said.

Tanina said her monthly payment was around $80 a month and Tony said his tuition at St. Gertrude High School was around $52 a year.

“That’s putting things in perspective,” Tony said. 

“Now, you got to go into the thousands,” Tanina said.

Tanina wished good luck to the younger generations and advised them to make things such as marriage work.