A Century of Stories: Longtime Hiltonian resident celebrates 100th Birthday

Today friends and family will gather to celebrate a very special day for longtime Trenton resident, Celia Giddens, who will join an elite club as she celebrates her 100th birthday. 

Sitting in her living room flanked by her youngest daughter and granddaughter, Ms. Giddens, the self-proclaimed traveler, lights up when she talks about her plans to visit Montego Bay Jamaica for a week-long vacation to celebrate her birthday with her family. 

Born in Quitman, Georgia on December 5, 1923 on a large plantation, Giddens and her older sister were raised by her grandparents. Giddens said that her schooling consists of a seventh grade education and teaching herself along the way through her travels and life experience. 

Working in the fields as a little girl, Giddens noticed an airplane flying by that made her imagine a life a world away from the cotton fields of Georgia and she promised herself that she would be a passenger one day flying to a destination she had always dreamt about. 

Her first trip on an airplane? “Nassau, Bahamas. It was beautiful,” Giddens said with a reflective smile. 

Less than one percent of residents living in the United States live to be 100 and the 85% of people who make it to that milestone are women, according to a New England Centenarian Study, which has been enrolling and studying centenarians and their family members globally since 1995. Longevity definitely runs in the family, Mrs. Giddens’ grandmother lived to be 116-years-old. “When my grandmother died, she was working in the fields. They said the cause of her death was just plain old age.”

Giddens credits part of her longevity to farm-to-table eating and her faith. “Growing up everything was all natural. Everything that she ate, she grew on the farm,” said Naimah Salaam, Giddens youngest and only living child. “There were no pesticides, no growth hormones. So her upbringing was a natural base.”

Despite suffering from a stroke and being diagnosed with high blood pressure, Giddens remains physically active and mentally sharp. Giddens takes pride in her daily routine of dressing herself in the morning, eating breakfast, exercising, and sitting in her front window watching the coming and going of her Stuyvesant Avenue neighborhood. “I can tell you what all my neighbors are doing just about,” Giddens said with a laugh. When Giddens isn’t traveling or visiting a casino you can find her in front of the television watching Steve Harvey host the Family Feud or rooting for her favorite football team the Dallas Cowboys, who reminds her of her southern roots. “I get up, go to the bathroom, dress myself and groom myself, and I come downstairs, get in my scooter, go in the kitchen and fix myself some breakfast,” Giddens said with a hint of gratitude of her independence.  

“My grandmother taught me to believe in myself and to have faith. She has taught me so many things when I didn’t believe in myself,” said Giddens’ granddaughter, Corsandra Sims. “In my life now she is still my guidance.” 

Mrs. Giddens has been a member of St. Paul AME Mount Zion church for over 60 years and served as a captain of the usher board. Even though she is not as active in the church as she used to be, Giddens says that she is still close to the members of her church and that they “call to check on me.”

Salaam, who is also Giddens caretaker, said one of the greatest lessons her mother taught her was to have humility. “My mother has always been a gentle soul. I think her willingness to help other people has been one of the reasons why she is still here.”

Giddens moved to Trenton with her late husband, Otis B. Giddins, over 70 years ago and raised her three children on Wilson Avenue. Giddens described her neighborhood as a diverse and tight-knit community composed of Blacks, Italians and Polish residents who often ate dinner at each other homes. Salaam, fondly recalls the Mayor of Warren Street, Joe Festa, as a friendly neighbor of the Giddens family. Salaam said her mother has always been soft spoken, but never played when it came to protecting her family. 

When the family bought a home in the Hiltonian section almost 30 years ago, Giddens and her late husband, Otis, received a cold reception from the community. “The saddest thing for me is when we moved into [Hiltonia] they didn’t want my mother or my father here, but my mother wrote a letter to the Veterans Administration about the harassment since my father served in World War II and they sort of left him alone from there.”

Looking back at her longlife, Giddens said that she wants to be remembered as someone who has always loved and cared for people. In honoring the 100th birthday of this longtime Trenton resident, we not only celebrate the individual but also pay homage to the collective history and spirit of a community that has weathered the sands of time. Giddens’ stories, experiences, and memories are not just a personal narrative but a living chronicle of Trenton’s past, present, and future.