Mary Vieira Rose has seen a lot in her 99 years--two world wars, the first moon landing, and 17 presidents included--but on Wednesday she got to experience something few people ever get to do. She met the pope.

"He makes you feel at ease like a friend," said Rose of Pope Francis, one of the more popular popes in recent memory. "It's a wonderful feeling that's not going to leave you."

Rose, an Onset native, was taken to Italy by surprise by her family. Her daughter, Marian, said that Rose's son, Ed, and his wife Barbara came to visit from California, and they all took a limo back to Logan airport last Saturday to say goodbye to Ed and Barbara--or at least that's what they told Rose.

They had actually snuck her luggage into the limo, and gave her a card telling her she was going to Italy.

"She was totally shocked," Marian said.

They spent five days touring the ancient city of Rome and parts of Italy. As Franciscans, the Roses traveled to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, and on Easter Sunday, Marian said there were more than 100,000 people in St. Peter's Square.

On Wednesday they took a private tour through the Vatican, when Marian and her mother, who was in a wheelchair, were led to a smaller room for the viewing of the pope. Rose said in a room of about 150 people, she thought, "maybe he might come over here."

When Francis entered the room and got closer, Rose turned to her daughter and told her to make sure she would say something to him if she was too awestruck.

Rose said when the pope shook hands with them and learned that Rose was almost 100 years old, he said, "I will pray for you if you pray for me."

She also said that when she saw the pope and all of the people who were in the room with him--nuns, babies, youths from all over the world--she felt a sense of hope despite all that she sees going wrong in the world today.

"Never in my life did I think I would go to Italy," she said.

Born in December of 1914, Rose still lives in the same house on Onset Avenue she grew up in.  Her father ran a grocery store out of the house and she said she remembers going on horse and wagon into Onset center to deliver groceries.

She said she remembers the 1920s in Onset and how Hollywood stars like Ella Fitzgerald would come to town.

"I could hear the music from our house," she said of the casino that was situated right down the block from her in the field that is across from the Lopes Playground.

She said she remembers the Hurricane of 1938, which she said brought the ocean to her doorstep.  Rose recalled that on the day before the hurricane, she had walked across Dummy Bridge, and the next day, it was gone.

When asked what the secret to having such a long, illustrious life was, Rose said, "It's hard to say. Don't hurt anybody and try to do good for someone if you can."