The Wintersteen family of Cassadaga is making arrangements for the celebration of Mary Wintersteen's 100th birthday on Thursday. Submitted photo

The Wintersteen family of Cassadaga has had to make some changes to a planned birthday celebration as a result of the coronavirus shutdown.

On April 2, Mary Wintersteen of Lockport will celebrate her 100th birthday. Wintersteen’s family includes a son, Pete Wintersteen of Fredrickson Builders Supply in Cassadaga; daughter-in-law Janice; grandchildren Steve and Laura Wintersteen and Stacey and Kevin Morabito; and great-grand-children Jocelyn Wintersteen, Bo Morabito and Scarlett Morabito, all of Cassadaga.

Wintersteen was born and raised in Lockport, and currently resides at the Lockport Health and Rehab Center along with her husband Charles, who is 98.

“My brother sent out invitations and we had relatives from Colorado coming and all this kind of good stuff,” Paul Wintersteen said. “We were going to have a get-together at the nursing home. I’ve been promising her, once you turn 100 you’ll get a letter from the president.”

Wintersteen said the family had contacted the White House, and was waiting to hear a response on the letter.

“I don’t know if they still do that or not but they said they received my email,” Wintersteen said.

A mother of three boys, Wintersteen is an avid Sabres and Bills fan. In light of the shutdown, the family has been looking at other ways to celebrate, including video calls.

“We were going to try with Skype. My brother was going to get ahold of some nurses up there to see if we could have a Skype conversation,” Wintesteen said. “We’ll see if we can do that.”

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have used video chats and other programs like window-visits in order to keep residents safe while visiting with loved ones.

Winstersteen said that his mother and father have an interior room in Lockport, so a window-visit may not be possible.

“The stuff that she has seen over the years, it is amazing when you think about it,” Wintersteen said. “All of the stuff that we take for granted now.”