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Daughter of Bills, Sabres owners into all-US QF in Australia

A little more than nine decades ago, a young woman in Wilkes-Barre felt so despondent over the death of her little boy that she told her husband she wanted to move back to Italy.
				Wait until the new baby is born, Frank Cuscela urged his wife, Gilda.
				After the new baby was born on Feb. 16, 1931, Gilda&rsquo;s spirits rose, and Frank was able to persuade his wife to remain in this country.
				Agnes Cuscela Hummel, of Wilkes-Barre, who will be 90 years old on Tuesday, grew up with that story, knowing her parents considered her their &ldquo;Valentine&rsquo;s Day present.&rdquo;
				Then, the year she turned 16, Valentine&rsquo;s Day suddenly became even more significant.
				&ldquo;I went to a Valentine&rsquo;s Day party in 1947 and my husband-to-be walked into the room,&rdquo; said Hummel, whose friends call her Aggie.
				&ldquo;It was the best thing that happened to me. I looked at him &mdash; he was so friendly and smiling &mdash; and he looked at me. He was fresh out of the Navy, World War II was over, and he was already mature. I was only a junior at St. Nicholas (High School).&rdquo;
				Despite a few years age difference, Ben Hummel and Aggie Cuscela became a couple, sometimes meeting at the skating rink inside the old 109th Artillery Armory.
				&ldquo;It was like &lsquo;Happy Days,&rsquo; &rdquo; Aggie said, reminiscing about high school dances, the juke box at Abe&rsquo;s Hot Dogs on Barney Street and her job at the former Percy Brown&rsquo;s in downtown Wilkes-Barre. &ldquo;After work we&rsquo;d all hang out at The Embassy on Public Square,&rdquo; she said, naming a popular teen hangout.
				&ldquo;They were wonderful years,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Between the skating rink and The Embassy we had good clean fun.&rdquo;
				Then it was time to get serious, at least according to Aggie&rsquo;s father.
				&ldquo;He said that when you go with a boy for three years, it&rsquo;s time to get married,&rdquo; she said, explaining she and Ben took his advice and exchanged vows in 1950.
				The couple celebrated 54 wedding anniversaries together, before Ben passed away in 2005.
				Aggie suffered other heartaches along the way, most notably as she watched her firstborn daughter, Linda, cope with diabetes for 43 years. &ldquo;She was 10 years old when she was diagnosed, and they didn&rsquo;t have the technology they have today for treating it,&rdquo; Aggie said, remembering how her little girl learned to inject herself with insulin.
				Then one evening the adult Linda called Aggie and suggested the two go out for a steak dinner.
				&ldquo;When I came over an hour later, she didn&rsquo;t answer the door,&rdquo; Aggie remembered. &ldquo;But I had a key and &mdash; oh, no &mdash; I found her on the floor. I said, &lsquo;Lord, take her right to heaven.&rdquo;
				Aggie counts herself as a three-time cancer survivor, after being treated for a tumor on her adrenal gland in 1969 and later enduring two bouts with breast cancer.
				&ldquo;Yet here I am at 90,&rdquo; she said.
				She&rsquo;s grateful for many things, Aggie said, including being able to live in a four-generation household, with her daughter and son-in-law Jill and Jerry Ryan, her granddaughter Tyler Ryan and her great-granddaughter Sisilia Ryan Steransky.
				While she doesn&rsquo;t eat out or shop as often as she did before the pandemic Aggie still enjoys those activities to an extent. Wherever she goes she seems to spot familiar faces, including those of people she met during 40 years in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District lunch program.
				&ldquo;People are always calling &lsquo;Hi, Mrs. Hummel&rsquo; or &lsquo;Hiya, Aggie&rsquo;,&rdquo; she said.
				She misses her late brothers, Robert and Dan Cuscela, both of whom died last year, and sadly notes that her brothers Peter, Gino, and Frank Cuscela are also gone. &ldquo;I was the only girl, and I&rsquo;m the only one left,&rdquo; she said.
				At one point Aggie worked for Frank, who went into business with his friend Seymour Holtzman after the two graduated from Wilkes College.
				The two business partners would eventually establish the Jewelcor catalog showroom company, the Circus Pizza Emporium and Suburban Publishers, Aggie&rsquo;s daughter Jill Ryan recalled.
				In the early days, she said, &ldquo;they began by buying a mimeograph machine and hiring my mom (Aggie) and her fellow stay-at-home moms to print and staple mounds of interoffice communications for other companies.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;All the kids would come along with their moms and we would play among the many large mail bags,&rdquo; Jill Ryan wrote, noting the work was done in the basement of the home where Aggie still lives. &ldquo;The moms would bring their casseroles, to cook in my mom&rsquo;s stove, for their families&rsquo; dinner each night.&rdquo;
				From those humble beginnings the partnership grew successful, Jill Ryan said, and her uncle was able to provide &ldquo;many donations to Wilkes University,&rdquo; including contributions that, in memory of his parents, financed the dining hall and cafeteria.
				Aggie counts the university dining hall as a place she likes to visit, and if she brings a friend along she&rsquo;ll point out the plaque emblazoned with the names Gilda and Frank Cuscela.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so glad they didn&rsquo;t go back to Italy,&rdquo; she said.

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Ninety years ago, she was a ‘Valentine’s Day present’