Every year, the Fischetti family hosts a posthumous birthday gathering for matriarch Genevieve in her honor.
The Fischetti family celebrated Genevieve Fischetti’s 100th birthday posthumously at Friendly’s in February 2025.Courtesy Trisha Burke and the Fischetti Family
March 25, 2025, 1:35 PM CDT
By Dan Aulbach
Nearly 15 years ago, Anthony Fischetti had the idea to throw a birthday party for his grandmother Genevieve.
Accompanied by his siblings, cousins and extended family, the Fischettis celebrated doing what their grandmother loves most: eating sundaes at a local Friendly’s restaurant.
While the party was organized to celebrate Genevieve Fischetti, the grandmother of 16 wasn’t physically present — it had been over a decade since she had passed in 1998 at the age of 72 — but her memories and legacy live on through her close-knit extended family.
On Feb. 28, 2025, the Fischetti family gathered at Friendly’s, where they reminisced and ate ice cream in honor of Genevieve’s 100th birthday.
“Being with her family together, it was always her joy,” Anthony Fischetti tells TODAY.com. “She would love that we’re doing this every year.”
“Sometimes with big families you don’t get to see each other, or you’re not that close,” Patti DeGraff, another grandchild explains. “We wouldn’t have that without her. She did that.”
Born Feb. 25, 1925, Genevieve Fischetti raised eight children in Belmore, New York as a single mother. The grandchildren described their parents’ upbringing as ‘tough,’ since many of Genevieve’s children had to seek jobs as soon as they were old enough to work.
“They grew up in the struggle, so they wanted to be successful,” says Anthony Fischetti of his aunts and uncles. “They knew how to work hard, and they kind of instilled that in us to always do your best.”
Despite the family’s shortcomings, Genevieve persevered with her positivity, and labored as a clerical worker in a local hospital to support her four sons and four daughters.
Once her grandchildren came along, Genevieve often piled the kids into her car for ice cream at Friendly’s, a family-favorite restaurant chain. Oftentimes, she and the kids sat in the same section in the restaurant while the children ate dessert and shot the occasional spit ball their grandmother’s way.
After the first posthumous birthday celebration, the tradition quickly caught on with the entire Fischetti family, as participation from extended family members increased from 15 attendees to 35.
Every year, the relatives exchange stories and recall the laughter, love, and gifts Genevieve bestowed upon her loved ones.
Though Genevieve frequently drove her grandchildren to get ice cream, the family jokes about Genevieve’s notably poor driving skills — she would often leave notes on cars after bumping into them. Patti even remembers a moment when she was younger and her grandmother accidentally drove through the same toll booth multiple times after getting lost on a New York highway. “‘Ma’am, where are you trying to go?’” Patti recalled the concerned toll clerk asking her grandmother.
As a result of the annual birthday celebrations, Genevieve’s 21 great grandchildren — whom she never met — have learned about the profound effect her life had on the entire Fischetti family.
“She had a very contagious laugh,” says 17-year-old Kylie Degraff, Patti’s daughter, recalling what she’s learned about her great grandmother. “She made friends wherever she went and we try to be like her because of her outgoingness.”
“We [all] get along really well,” says great-granddaughter Dianna Fischetti. “Even though she unfortunately passed away, we’re still celebrating her life and remembering her.”
The Fischettis even went so far as to virtually celebrate their beloved grandmother with an ice cream reunion via Zoom during the height of the 2020 pandemic.
Though it’s been 27 years since Genevieve Fischetti’s passing, her life lives on through the gathering, which the family has no plans of stopping, even if their preferred Friendly’s location closes its doors.
To mark Genevieve’s centennial milestone in 2025, the family attended mass in her honor before gathering at Friendly’s, as family and faith were what their matriarch valued most. At her memorial site, the family placed eight carnations — her favorite flower — representing her children, and 37 tulips to represent her ever-growing group of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“It was an honor to honor her,” Trisha Burke explains. “She’d be so proud, and she’d be laughing. She would probably be like, ‘Oh, I’m famous. So many people are showing interest in me.’”
