Avid Luso reader reaches the age of 100

Albert Fernandes Cadette from Massachusetts celebrated his 100th birthday this past March 25.

A war veteran, son of immigrants from Velosa, Celorico da Beira, Albert still waits for the arrival of his copy of the LUSO-AMERICANO every Wednesday at his house in Northampton, assures his son Joseph in statements made to this newspaper. Cadette was born in Holyoke, just outside of Ludlow, in 1922.

“With the Depression in the 1930’s, my grandfather, being an immigrant with little knowledge of English, decided to go back to Velosa in 1932. That’s where Albert Fernandes Cadette stayed until 1941, before returning to Northampton, where his brother Joe was and also his future wife to be.

In 1942, with the world at war, Cadette enlisted in the American Navy and, after receiving training, joined as an radar operator on the “USS Parker”, on August 31 of that year. He was in a support action  attack on the port of Lyautey in November of 1942, and, back to the USA, passed to the crew of the “USS Saturn”, where he stayed a year and a half.

His military career, that would take him to different globe points, also awarded him with two honorable mentions by his intervention at the war (Mediterranean and in Pacific) and ended around 1946, returning to California and American soil “which he bent down to kiss”, said his son.

He married in 1950 and had three children. He was married for about 69 years, until he was widowed in 2019, when he was 98 years old.