Mary Rotola and Lucille Acierno have been friends for so long they can't even peg a year when they started their partnership.

And it's as much a partnership as it is a friendship with them.

"What she didn't think of, I did," Mary said Wednesday during a break from making cookies.

They are so close they finish each other's sentences.

"We all holler at each other," Lucille said. "People ask, 'Do you always fight?' And I tell them we're not fighting. We can't hear."

They're both members of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church's Altar and Rosary Society.

Their role this week is helping prepare food for the annual Feast of St. Joseph Table, which will be held on St. Patrick's Day and Sunday, even though the official day is Monday.

All money goes to feed the hungry. For a donation, people get a goody bag of cookies. There's also a buffet.

Mary, 93, and Lucille, 83, were twisting ribbons of dough for butterfly cookies.

Mary and her late husband, Albert, started the tradition in 1977 in their home. The next year, she took it to Mount Carmel. Mary had seen something similar in St. Louis when her son, Albert, was ordained a Jesuit priest.

"You know the real story?" Lucille asked. And then to Mary, she said, "Tell him."

They shared in telling the story that goes back to ancient times in Sicily when there was a severe drought. Crops were dying and so were the people.

"The only plant that survived was fava beans," Lucille said. "People ate them. They used to feed those to livestock."

Then Mary finished, saying the people prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of Italy, for help. Rain came. The people were spared. And in gratitude at harvest time, they had a feast of thanksgiving in St. Joseph's honor, leaving aside food to feed the hungry.

The church is as important to Mary and Lucille as their friendship. It's where they have married, baptized their children and buried their husbands. Even in grief they have been close.

"Our husbands died six months apart," Lucille said.

They both grew up in north Denver. Both came up the hard way - eighth-grade education and then straight to work - Mary in retail sales and Lucille at a factory.

In 1962, they joined up again, when Mary answered a call to cook for the students at the church school. She called Lucille to come help.

"Oh, those kids ate good," Lucille said. "We made ravioli."

"We baked bread fresh every day," Mary said.

Mary recalled a phone call from a mother asking what they had fed her child. It was beef stew.

"He said it's the best he's ever eaten," the mom told her.

They are old enough to sit in rocking chairs, but don't. They keep busy, helping at the church that is their community.

"We haven't wasted a minute of our lives," Mary said.

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271

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