The Newhall Gardens senior public-housing complex on Daisy Street was temporarily converted into a party space, as residents gathered for a communal birthday celebration replete with music, streamers and home-cooked macaroni and cheese.
“It’s like a close-knit place here,” said Louisa Pearsall, the president of the complex. “I try to get them food — home-cooked, not junk. Us older ones, we don’t cook like we used to.”
Pearsall and Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn stayed up late the night before preparing food and hanging up decorations for the party.
Clyburn — who called the Newhall Gardens residents “my kings and queens” — said she was delighted to contribute to an exciting day for the roughly two dozen seniors who attended.
“They live too long to not be happy and content,” Clyburn said.
Pearsall took over at Newhall Gardens in 1994, after more than three decades as an aide at Yale’s Morse College. She’s always hosted one party a year — it’s easier to have a single celebration for everyone than to keep track of individual birthdays — and has no plans to stop.
“I just turned 85 this year. I’m supposed to be a diabetic,” she said to laughter from the residents gathered around her. “But I eat as much as I want, what I want, when I want.”