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Greenwich Resident Kristoff Celebrates 100th Birthday

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Greenwich resident Frances Kristoff celebrates her 100th birthday on Sunday with family.
Greenwich resident Frances Kristoff celebrates her 100th birthday on Sunday with family.

By Evan Triantafilidis
Sentinel Correspondent

Sundays have always been sacred for the Kristoff family.

Frances Kristoff of Greenwich is often remembered for preparing the once-a-week lunch for the whole family to enjoy.

This past Sunday, Kristoff celebrated her 100th birthday with friends and family at Pasquale’s in Port Chester.

Kristoff was “born with a bang,” as likes to say, on July 4, 1915 in Chicago. When Frances was a child, her parents, Santo and Anna Fina, moved the family to Byram, where Santo ran Fina’s Market on Mill Street, a Byram fixture for decades.

Two years ago, at the age of 98, Kristoff moved to Fairview Nursing Home on King Street.

On Sunday she was surrounded by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and longtime family friends to celebrate a century of family and traditions.

She also received a letter from the White House congratulating her on becoming a centenarian.

Kristoff’s two sons, Bob, owner of Byram Tile, and Michael, a retired Greenwich police officer, recalled their mother preparing and making Sunday lunch when they were younger and didn’t dare to miss the weekly meal.

“Every Sunday we were summoned to that kitchen table for lunch,” Bob Kristoff said. “You’d better show up. If you didn’t, you were in trouble.

“She’s very gregarious. She loves people. If I brought you home for lunch, and you were being polite by taking small portions, then she’d get all over you. If you don’t eat and go hungry, well, that’s your fault.”

Her meals consisted of roast beef, leg of lamb loaded with garlic, stuffed cabbage, lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs, including side dishes for the entire family.

“There was no such thing as not being there for her Sunday dinner,” said Michael Kristoff. “There was no excuse.”

The 100-year-old Greenwich resident was the oldest of six children, but she has outlived all five, including her fraternal twin, Lena, who died in 2009.

Kristoff has four grandchildren: Michael, of Stamford; Anne, of New York City; Kimberly, of Greenwich; and Jessica, of Bridgeport. She also has two great-grandchildren, twins Anne Marie and Tylar Rose.

She was married to Frank Kristoff, who died in 1997, for 60 years.

Frances worked on Henry Street in Byram for the S&K Vest company and then at Daitch Shopwell on Greenwich Avenue, and later in Stamford and Rye.

She enjoys singing, stringing beads, knitting, playing cards, and has made baby outfits for everyone in the family.

“She would always hand knit them,” Bob Kristoff said. “Everybody that was a part of the family, it was automatic, you got the hand knitted outfit. They were the jumper suits where you were covered top to bottom.”

Her two sons reminisced about the days when their mother raised them with love and integrity.

“The people in Byram are special,” said Bob. “To be a ‘Byram Boy’ means something. What that means is, if we were out in town doing business and you had my word, that’s all you needed. We would shake hands and that’s all you needed.”

Michael added that there was no such thing as written contracts in the old Byram, where your word was your bond.

The family’s latest Sunday lunch was a time for celebration and reflecting on their proud and hard-working past, where both of Frances’ sons agreed that she had raised two Byram Boys indeed.

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