Vera Szostak, 101, seamstress and family matriarch

Vera Szostak, 101, of Philadelphia, a seamstress and family matriarch who lived to know her great-great-grandchildren, died Wednesday, Oct. 29, of pneumonia at Blessed John Neumann Home in Bustleton, where she had lived since July 2013.

"She had so many trials early in life, but she rose above them," said her niece Carol A. Petroski. Her ongoing vigor may have been due to her love of walking and eating fruit.

Mrs. Szostak was born in 1913 in Jersey City, N.J. Her father, Anthony Kichak, died in the 1918 influenza epidemic, leaving her mother, Anna, to raise six children. Mrs. Szostak finished eighth grade, then began working to help support her family.

In 1937, she took a government job sewing uniforms at the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot at 21st Street and Oregon Avenue. For more than 30 years, Mrs. Szostak rose before the sun to travel from North Philadelphia. She received many awards for speed and productivity.

In 1940, she married a widower, Eugene Szostak, who had two young sons. He died while serving in the Navy in 1944, leaving Mrs. Szostak to raise the boys.

In 1957, Mrs. Szostak, by then the matriarch of her extended family, had pinched pennies enough to buy a home in Kensington. Later, she moved to Olney.

"She was proud of her independence and never complained. Her home was a happy gathering place for family and friends," her family said in a tribute.

Over the years, she treated many children in the family to lunch at John Wanamaker's Crystal Tea Room and visits with Santa.

In 1968, she retired after 31 years at the Quartermaster Depot. In retirement, she enjoyed boarding a bus to Atlantic City and playing the Pennsylvania Lottery.

She "had a serious system for using family birth dates and such to pick her numbers. She was amazingly lucky," her family said.

She also enjoyed sewing and making Easter outfits and Holy Communion dresses for her grandchildren. Mrs. Szostak taught Petroski, her niece, how to sew.

Though Mrs. Szostak was generally healthy, when she was 90, doctors found she needed a quintuple heart bypass. She moved to an assisted-living facility, where she received good care, played bingo, and enjoyed visits.

When she turned 100 in August 2013, more than 60 friends and relatives from near and far gathered to celebrate. "It was wonderful," her niece said.

Surviving, in addition to her niece, are a son, Eugene; seven grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren. Son Donald died in January.

Services were Friday, Nov. 7.