Julia Macedo knows what is important in life.

“Family is everything,” Macedo said Tuesday as she sat in the dining room of her home that backs up to the Spring Creek Country Club golf course in Ripon.

It’s the same dining room where Sunday family dinners drawing at least 10 people a week from Macedo’s extended family has been a tradition since she and her late husband Manuel bought the home in 1973.

Macedo, who turned 100 on Dec. 22, relishes the fact she was fortunate to adopt “three wonderful children” — Daniel, David, and Maryann — after tragically losing two newbie babies.

Macedo comes from a large family. She was the sixth of nine siblings born to Albert and Julia Cardoza and the only girl.

Her father was an immigrant from Portugal while her mother was born in Prunedale north of Salinas.

“None of us were spoiled,” she said. “We all got along with each other.”

Macedo and her brothers Alfred, Manuel, Leonard, Frank, Daniel, George, Henry, and William grew up on a dairy in Tracy. She said they never ran out of things to do.

“There were always things to do such as play marbles and baseball. We were a baseball team,” she said in reference to being nine strong.

The family dairy was on Chrisman Road near where the Tracy Defense Depot would eventually be built during World War II.

She attended Tracy Union High where one of her fondest memories was watching her brother Daniel play football.

Back then, she noted, the big rivalry was the Tracy Bulldogs versus the Manteca Buffaloes.

Her brother was scouted by the Detroit Lions due to his football prowess but tragically succumbed to an illness before graduating.

Macedo graduated on June 11, 1941. In recent years she has been in charge of the Bulldog Class of 1941 reunions. After they were disrupted by the pandemic, Macedo had her 100th birthday bash at the Manteca golf course that includes 130 of her family and close friends also do double duty as a belated 80th class reunion. Three of the remaining alumnus from her Class of 1941were able to attend.

Six months after her graduation the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That prompted her high school sweetheart Manuel Macedo to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

When she turned 21, she traveled by train to Savannah, Georgia, to marry Macedo on Aug. 9, 1942.

They ended up living in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina before he was shipped off to England to work as an airplane mechanic during the war.

When that happened, she returned to Tracy. She first worked at a pencil factory in Stockton and then for the railroad in Tracy.

Manuel returned to Tracy after being discharged. They ended up buying a ranch in Lathrop.

They sold the Lathrop ranch in 1956 to purchase 500 acres near the southern end of Austin Road adjacent to Caswell Memorial State Park that boasts the largest remaining stand on riparian woodlands in the San Joaquin Valley.

Among the crops they grew on the Austin Road farm were sugar beets, alfalfa, tomatoes, oats, and black-eyed peas.

Manuel served on the Ripon High school board for many years while she volunteered to work as a polling place worker during elections.

In 1971 Manuel was diagnosed with cancer that made it increasingly hard for him to keep farming. In 1973 they sold the ranch and bought their home by the Spring Creek Golf Course.

Back then Ripon had less than 2,000 residents.

Prior to losing his battle to cancer in 1977, the couple enjoyed traveling across the country visiting the many military men and their wives they had met through the years.

In 1981, she was re-married to Wilson “Phil” Phelps. Together they traveled extensively across the United States and to China. He passed away in 2014.

A devout Catholic, Macedo is a member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Manteca.

Macedo feels blessed that she’s still able to live in her home on Spring Creek drive with her daughter and son-in-law, Maryann and Steve Seidlitz. She loves her home and the excellent care she receives.

She looks forward to her morning greetings from the family Persian “Bogey”, Sunday morning Eggs Benedict and an occasional Mimosa.  Her home is a revolving door for friends and family to stop by for a visit.  She enjoys frequent visits from granddaughter Katie and the weekend sleepovers with the “James Gang” boys, Casen, Samuel and Roman. She cherishes her phone calls from other granddaughters Jennifer, Julie and Doni.

Macedo keeps herself and mind busy playing card games on her tablet, knitting baby blankets, watching TV, and doing puzzles. She looks forward to playing a nightly game of Spite and Malice with Maryann, Wednesday afternoons with granddaughter Brandi, weekly lunch dates with son David and family dinners on Sunday.

Macedo also loves her frequent visits from son Dan and daughter-in-law Debbie who live in Bakersfield but try to come for an extended stay every month.

Besides her sons Daniel, (daughter-in-law Debbie), David (Karen), daughter Maryann (son in- law Steve), she has 5 granddaughters, Jennifer Carr (Glenn), Julie Macedo, Brandi Macedo, Katie James (Jonathon) and Doni Macedo and 10 Great-Grandchildren, Anthony, Shawna, Evan, Jackson, Casen, Samuel, Roman, Trinity, Connor and Elias.

As for any advice she’d offer from what she’s learned in 100 plus years besides the importance of family, is not to sweat the small stuff.

“It never get excited over the small things,” Macedo said.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, emaildwyatt@mantecabulletin.com