When a visitor walked through the door of Josephine Rotolo’s West Islip home, she never said hello. She’d give them a hug and instead ask “Have you eaten yet?” She almost always had something prepared and if she didn’t, she’d sit her guest down at the table and whip something up, her family said.

Rotolo was the matriarch and epicenter of a large family, and showed her love for them and others around her through food. The longtime Long Island resident died June 18 at her daughter’s home in Oakdale, just one week short of her 108th birthday, her family said.