Elaine H. Micelli isn’t one to keep her thoughts to herself.

Micelli prides herself on her ability to tell it like it is. She is clear-cut without lacking compassion — a balance she learned from her mom and dad.

“I don’t lie. I don’t steal and don’t cheat. I don’t have to do any of those, I wasn’t brought up that way,” Micelli said. “I try to be gracious. I try not to ever hurt people, and if I ever do, I apologize in advance.”

Micelli said she was a good kid — partially because she didn’t want to face the consequences that came with disobedience.

On an instance when Micelli did disobey (she played in an area she was told to stay away from and got dirty) she was sent to her room without dinner. Her father corrected her, tears in his eyes, saying, “I told you, little Smookie. You better behave.”

Micelli grew up in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Her family owned a store called Ted’s Grocery. It was named after her father, Theodore, who immigrated to the U.S. from Poland.

Micelli spent many of her afternoons helping in the dry cleaners across the street. She was willing to lend a hand to anyone in need.

“My mom always said, ‘Elaine, if the devil said hello to you, you’d say hi,’” Micelli recalled.

Micelli graduated from high school in 1954. Two years later, she met her first husband, Leo Carr. The two had four children.

But in 1969, Carr and Micelli divorced.

Micelli moved into an apartment in King of Prussia. She worked as a district sales manager for Avon.

Then, in 1985, a friend introduced Micelli to a man named Albert Micelli. The two started hanging out. Micelli remembers they spent one evening walking around a park until 2 a.m., talking about how much they both loved being single.

“We got married four months later,” she said. “It just worked.”

Micelli and Albert moved into a house he owned in Penn Forest Streams in Carbon County. They started getting involved in their community — first joining their neighborhood’s security board and then the ranks of Penn Forest Volunteer Fire Company. That was in the late 80s.

Micelli served on the fire house’s auxiliary; she was once its president.

Albert was assistant fire chief. When the fire house hosted its monthly breakfasts, Albert would work in the kitchen, and Micelli manned the door. She even had a catchphrase, “I’ll take your money, honey,” she would say to the meal’s attendees.

When asked what motivated her to spend time serving, Micelli responded, “There’s so many people that do not give a flying hoot, and I don’t want to be one of them.

“It’s as easy as that,” she said.

Albert’s volunteerism was interrupted in the 2000s, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died in 2005.

But despite losing her partner in arms, Micelli continued to be a part of her community. To this day, she an active fire house volunteer. A few years ago, she started calling bingo at a nursing home. And she is still on the Penn Forest Streams Security Board.

“As long as I can smile — that’s the important thing,” Micelli said. “And if I can make you smile, that’s better yet.”

Other things that make Micelli smile, she said, are her three grandchildren and her six great-grandchildren.

Micelli has always been a people person. In a world where most people are looking down at their cellphones, she still tries to keep her head up, greeting every person she passes on the street.

But even if you’re not as outgoing as Micelli, she said everyone has a reason to serve their community.

“You live there,” she said. “It’s yours. Treat it with respect.”