Rose Knesz celebrated her 102nd birthday April 7.

She has been a resident of Sacred Heart Senior Living by the Creek, 602 E. 21st St., Northampton, since December 2015. Staff, family and friends agree they have hustled to keep pace with this bundle of energy they call Rosie ever since.

Rosie smoothly and steadily slides her walker to the dining room and just as smoothly pushes her shuffleboard puck down the alley, according to Sacred Heart staff. With a sweater across her shoulders, she rarely misses Mass and Rosary or exercise and craft class.

Thanks to a recent question-and-answer session with the birthday girl, here are some fun facts about her long, fascinating life.

Rosie was born in her parents’ home on Railroad Street, Northampton, in March of 1921. She and her husband, Joseph Polgar, lived in that same house, where their daughter Rose and son John were born and raised.

Her husband, an Army veteran, gave his life for his country in France during World War II. Rosie applied for his monthly pension. She qualified for $35.50 monthly, but because the couple had two children, she was awarded $55. She chose not to accept a lump sum of money, but rather a monthly check for life. Every year, there is an increase in the amount.

“The war took my husband,” she said. “I will take that money for life with the kids. It was hard.”

Sixteen years later, Rosie married Steve Knesz, a Navy enlistee. They had fraternal twins, Debra and Dennis, who were raised in Rosie’s childhood home. Siblings in the Polgar and Knesz families together eventually added a total of five grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and five great- great-grandchildren.

“What blessings they are,” she said.

If you decided to ask Rosie what her favorite food is today, you may be momentarily dumbstruck. It’s toasted bread with lard and fresh garlic smeared on it. She loves raw bacon, too, and home-smoked garlic ham.

Many have heard her say, “You eat the meat. Rosie will eat the fat.”

Frequently, family meals included beef and chicken, often barley soup and beans fried in garlic. Rosie likes hot peppers and horseradish together, and to her palate, apple cider vinegar is a tasty drink.

At one time in her 102 years of life, she baked seven-layer cakes for local weddings and earned $5 for each one. They were beautiful, she said, and so was her father’s homemade wine, also good at wedding celebrations.

Early in her second marriage, her husband worked the late shift at Bethlehem Steel. When he’d come home at night, Rosie would beg him to eat some garlic bread with her as a late-night snack. He refused for a while; then one time when she asked, he tasted it and claimed he couldn’t get enough of it.

Staying up late waiting for her husband to return from work at Bethlehem Steel became a lifetime habit. To this day, Rosie enjoys staying up late - till around midnight - and likes to eat something before going to bed.

When asked which years she would call the best ones of her life, she responded, “My teenager years because we went to so many dances in Northampton, and at 16 years old, I quit school to work in the factory.”

Sewing Army and Navy pants for the U.S. military began at age 16 for Rosie and continued until her retirement at age 62. She was very skilled at her job; the employer encouraged her to continue working from home.

When Rosie taught her mother how to inspect the clothing she produced, she could pay her mother as her assistant. The mother and daughter duo lived and worked together in the home where Rosie was born, grew up and became a wife, mother, grandparent and great-grandparent.