GAIL WHITE Grandma Notareschi celebrates her big fat Italian birthday

Phyllis Notareschi of Poland celebrates her 76th birthday today.
She won't have any trouble blowing out the candles on her cake because Phyllis will have help from two of her 14 grandchildren.
Rachel Jeswald and Vincent Notareschi share the same birthday as their Grandma Notareschi.
Rachel, a second-grader at Poland, turns 8 today. Vincent, a fourth-grader at Poland, is 11 (going on 41).
"Grandma will be 37," he informs me.
While Grandma Notareschi's triple birthday celebration is unusual, it may be even more unusual for a 76-year-old to blow out candles on a Scooby Doo cake.
"We do 'Cha-cha-cha,'" Vincent explains the ending of each line when singing "Happy Birthday."
Grandma takes it all in stride.
Visiting the family
When I pulled onto Rey and Phyllis Notareschi's street last week to talk with them about this upcoming triple birthday event, I thought I had misunderstood the memo. Cars were lined up and down the road around the Notareschi house.
"The birthday party is today?" I asked myself in a panic as I checked my notes.
Walking up to the house, I feared I had, indeed, written down the wrong date. There was most definitely a party going on inside.
Greeted by a handful of people, my mind began racing with the names being introduced to me. Sisters, cousins, in-laws and one great-grandchild crowded around the Notareschi kitchen with Grandma and Grandpa seated at the table.
Immediately, I was offered something to drink.
"I should have made spaghetti," Grandma said with regret.
Slowly, I realized my notes were not wrong. This was not the triple birthday party. It was an afternoon at the Notareschi's.
"My birthday parties are always huge," Vincent tells me. "With lots of people and lots of food. We are like one big Italian family and we get together and eat."
Vincent talks a lot about eating. Partly because he is a boy and partly because he likes to cook.
Rachel does not say much at all but her sweet, loving smile speaks volumes.
"It's kind of a joke," Vincent's mother, Chris, says, laughing. "It's pretty hard to get your own birthday in this family."
The family tree
Rey and Phyllis have been married 57 years. ("It went like that," Rey says with a snap of his fingers.)
With six children all married, 14 grandchildren and four (and a half) great-grandchildren, there are several duplicate birthdays in the Notareschi clan, but none quite as popular as May 23.
"I was in labor," Chris recalls Vincent's birth. "My husband called his mother at 11:50 p.m." It was May 22.
"She said, 'You better wait!'" Chris recounts her mother-in-law's response. "I think it was very nice of me to hold off and do this."
Rachel's mother, Phyllis, didn't have to wait.
"Actually, I was a week early," Phyllis admits.
Ironically, Vincent's father is the youngest son of the Notareschis'. He was named by his older siblings after his father, Rey.
Rachel's mother is the youngest daughter of Phyllis and Rey. She too, was named by her older siblings, who again decided on the namesake, Phyllis.
The two children named after their parents had children on their mother's birthday.
Today, after "Happy Birthday" (cha-cha-cha) is sung and the candles are blown out on the Scooby Doo cake, Rachel hopes to receive some stuffed animals, Mary Kate and Ashley dolls and a bike for her birthday.
Vincent would like some cookbooks, chapter books and video games.
Grandma Notareschi does not wish for anything.
"I don't want a thing. Just a big, happy family," she says with a smile of complete contentment.
"Don't I have it all?" she asks her big, happy family crowded in her kitchen. "I really don't want a thing. I am blessed. I am."
gwhite@vindy.com