Faithfulness in a Cup

At 100 years old, Italy’s oldest barista is still behind the counter -- and her story has something to teach us about faithfulness and joy.

Anna Possi has been serving coffee at Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno, Italy, since 1958, when she and her husband opened its doors overlooking Lake Maggiore. In those early years, the café buzzed with life -- espresso cups clinking, the jukebox playing, laughter spilling out onto the cobblestone street. When her husband died in 1974, Possi kept the café running and raised their two children on her own. And she never stopped.

More than six decades later, she still arrives before sunrise, turns the key in the same old door, and begins serving cappuccinos and conversation until evening. The jukebox is gone now, replaced by a bookshelf and a computer she uses each morning to read the news and check the stock exchange. Locals come for the coffee, but they stay for the company of Italy’s oldest working barista.

“When people leave,” Possi says, “they leave happy and recharged. I don’t know what it is that I’ve transmitted.”

But her customers know: It’s joy. It’s kindness. It’s the sacred rhythm of showing up ... faithfully, lovingly, day after day. In a world that glorifies hurry and achievement, Possi's life reminds us that the simplest acts of service can become our most enduring ministry -- even at 100 years old: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” -- Colossians 3:23

May we, too, approach each day with that kind of devotion -- pouring love into ordinary work, and trusting that even the smallest act done in faith can honor God and fill another’s cup.