Happy 95th Birthday, Jane!
By Katie McFadden
On Saturday, December 21, local resident Jane McDade will celebrate her 95th birthday. Usually we’ll profile someone who might be turning 100, but local resident and fellow craft club member, Eileen Maloney, recommended we give Jane a call, as after all, 95 is still impressive, and well, because McDade is quite the character. “She’s a ball of fire. You’d understand, she knocks your socks off,” Maloney warned, er, said.
A quick nine-minute phone call with McDade was a whirlwind. While honored that someone would deem her worthy of interview, McDade repeatedly said, “I don’t want to bore you,” and proceeded to shoot off rapid-fire quips that kept us laughing and impressed us the whole time. And despite saying, “I’m very boring,” McDade knew what she was doing. “If you can put a laugh on someone’s face, you’re doing a good deed. Every day, you should put a smile on someone’s face,” she said.
As she approaches her milestone birthday, McDade is also preparing for her 95th Christmas. “I love Christmas. Anyone born in December is special because you’re born close to the infant Jesus. I made that up,” she said. Adding, “I can still put up my own tree and decorations.” While she recently stopped driving, McDade says she’s still working around the house, still active, and she has plenty of kind family members and friends who help take her to Mass at St. Francis de Sales every day. “I love living in this parish, I love my priests,” she said.
McDade will be surrounded by love as she celebrates her 95th birthday and 95th Christmas this week. She calls the family she created with late husband, John, her biggest accomplishment. “God has been good to me and I’m very happy and if I accomplished anything, I brought nine human beings into this world and they’re all Christians and I love them very much, and I know they love me, even though I drive them crazy. I love them, but families sometimes do drive you crazy,” she said. But when she gets a phone call from her “darling family,” she knows they care. “I know when I get calls from my children, they’re trying to find out if I’m alive,” she said.
It’s a large family that’s ever changing. McDade has experienced some loss. Her ninth child, baby Mary Agnes, died right after birth, and she’s since lost her grown children, Nancy and Michael. Her grandson, firefighter Timmy Klein, died in the line of duty in April 2022. But her family also continues to grow. “I’m working on the 23rd great grandchild in February. I have 26 grandchildren,” McDade said.
When letting us know about McDade, Maloney said, “She makes the best Irish soda bread in Rockaway,” and requested that we ask McDade if she’ll pass her recipe down to one of her family members. McDade said, “My kids, are you kidding? They don’t even eat it.” But others do. “People seem to like it and I can still make it. That’s a gift because I knead it, which takes using my fingers, and they’re not working so well, so I have to be patient and I’m not really patient, but I make a pretty good soda bread,” she said. “It puts a smile on people’s faces.”
What’s the secret to living to 95? McDade’s still trying to figure that out. “I’m still trying to figure out what my purpose is. I’ve been trying to figure it out for 94 years. I still haven’t figured out what He wants me to do, but I love where I live, I love the people around me, and I think I still love being alive,” she said.
That’s about all we could get out of Jane before she rushed us off the phone saying, “I have things to do, but nothing important.” Whatever those things are, we hope Jane McDade has a wonderful 95th birthday and 95th Christmas. Maybe we’ll get a 20-minute interview out of her for her 100th birthday.
