Two days after her 100th birthday on Nov. 12, Woodhavenite Agnes Hussy was celebrated as a witness of faith, hope and grace at her parish of St. Thomas the Apostle.
Several dozen friends and neighbors gathered with the centenarian to give thanks for her long and healthy life with a Mass at the church and reception in the parish hall.
“This church and the people in it mean the most to me,” Hussy told a visitor while receiving kisses and hugs as she arrived at church. “My faith has blossomed here. It really keeps me going. And when I see all of the people again, that keeps me going.”
Father Frank Tumino, pastor, was the main celebrant of a Mass of thanksgiving in Hussy’s honor. Concelebrants included Father Michael Lynch, parochial vicar, and former parochial vicars, Fathers Felice DeLaura and John Francis, pastor of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, Jamaica.
During Mass, Hussy sat in a wheelchair in front of the altar where she served God and her church before relocating to Ozanam Hall Nursing Home, Bayside, earlier this year.
“We need days like this because we need to come together and be reminded of what a blessed life looks like,” Father Tumino said in his homily. “We see it in Agnes.”
Born and raised in St. Michael’s parish, East New York, Hussy was 10 years old when her parents moved to Woodhaven in 1925. Called to serve God in the single life, she worked 43 years as a secretary at New York Life Insurance Company in Manhattan.
A vibrant and cultured woman, she cultivated varied interests through the years, including classic literature and poetry, horseback riding and bird watching. She loved to travel and visited Australia, England and Russia in recent years.
Friends said that when she broke her leg before a trip to Alaska a few years ago, she didn’t think of cancelling, nor did it stop her from glacier climbing and white-water rafting.
“She is so full of life, really a renaissance woman,” said her friend Frank Drollinger.
“As far as I’m concerned, she’s perfect,” added Grace Frey, another close friend. “She’s kind, thoughtful, a very smart lady and so considerate of everybody.”
In retirement, she became more active in church, serving as a lector and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at daily Mass; she washed and ironed altar linens and altar server robes; and served in the baptism ministry – all until about two years ago when she started needing more assistance in her daily life.
Father Tumino noted how Hussy “so beautifully and carefully took part in everything that is done here at St. Thomas.”
The pastor also spoke of how hard it has been for Hussy to give up her home and ministries in the parish – her independence. And yet, she continues to go to daily Mass in the nursing home, to sing, enjoy nature and bring joy to other residents.
“Everything she does in her life is bound up with some service or prayer or helping someone,” said Drollinger, who came to know Hussy while driving her to and from Mass every morning.
More than being involved in formal parish ministries, she took part in every parish charity drive and helped neighbors organize their finances and fill out paperwork to be admitted into the same nursing home where she now resides.
It was also she who encouraged Drollinger to become a lector, and urged countless others to find ways to give of themselves to God.
“This is a person living her faith all the time,” Drollinger said.
Following Mass, a reception was held in Msgr. Mulz Hall, where students from St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Academy presented “Miss Agnes” with handmade cards, and Father Tumino led parishioners in singing “Happy Birthday.”
Holding Hussy’s hand, he helped her blow out the candles on a large pink-and-white cake, and then make the first slice. When asked what she thought of her birthday cake, Hussy said it looked “beautiful.”
