Donna J Pecora Relation to Deceased: Niece My thoughts and prayers go out to Uncle Cos, Charlie, Nancy Ann, and family. Aunt Nancy will be sadly missed. I think no matter where you stray, That I shall go with you a way. Though you may wander sweeter lands, You will not forget my hands, Nor yet the way I held my head Nor the tremulous things I said. You will still see me, small and white And smiling, in the secret night, And feel my arms about you when The day comes fluttering back again. I think, no matter where you be, You’ll hold me in your memory And keep my image there without me, By telling later loves about me. Dorothy Parker
Charlie Leccese Relation to Deceased: Son I wanted to add to the quick bio for my Mom. She was so much more than the words. There’s a lot to her life that I never saw. She grew up in the 30s and 40s but was someone who wanted the independent life that women weren’t necessarily allowed. She married later in life than most girls of that time. She worked Stromberg-Carlson and Kodak, in fact a “Rosie the Riveter” so to speak who worked at home during WWII while our boys (including my Dad) were over there. She was a golfer in a time when not many ladies were (I should have kept those bamboo clubs she started with, they just might have been worth something). She would have gone to college if her father allowed, but instead educated herself as a vociferous reader all her life. Once married to my Dad, the next 58 years were dedicated to raising us and keeping the house. I met someone who knew her from her working days and told about a trip to a dude ranch the girls took during the war. When I tried to get her to relate the story, she just dismissed it. “I don’t look in the past. That’s done, you can’t go back, always look forward.” And mostly she always did. Even in the last few years as she could no longer golf or do things she used to, she didn’t bemoan it, just focused on the things she could do – “Doing the best I can.” She was a scratch Bowler in the Parkettes for years, taught my Dad the game of golf, and he caught her enthusiasm for it. For 38 years at Ridgemont and for many retirement years in Florida, they enjoyed playing as much of the time as they could. She raised us all, and the acerbic wit that runs through us started from her sarcastic way of keeping us in line. She was an advocate of civil rights and anti-Vietnam War in the 60s (mostly I think part of the war thing was cause she didn’t want her son to go). She had strong interest in world events and followed closely so that even at the end of her life she was just as vociferous anti-Iraqi war in the 2000s as she had been about Vietnam in the 1960s. I think for every paragraph I write, I think of three new ones, so I’m going to stop here and just say: She lived a long, full and active life that started when Radio as just getting a foothold. She watched the world truly change from Model T to modern cars, flimsy prop planes to Space travel, Telgraph to Internet. It boggles the mind to think of how different the world was when she came into it and how she coped and adapted and embraced all the changes without skipping a beat (well, maybe not email nor Facebook). We will miss her. As we look back over time We find ourselves wondering ….. Did we remember to thank you enough For all you have done for us? For all the times you were by our sides To help and support us ….. To celebrate our successes To understand our problems And accept our defeats? Or for teaching us by your example, The value of hard work, good judgement, Courage and integrity? We wonder if we ever thanked you For the sacrifices you made. To let us have the very best? And for the simple things Like laughter, smiles and times we shared? If we have forgotten to show our Gratitude enough for all the things you did, We’re thanking you now. And we are hoping you knew all along, How much you meant to us.
Additional Tribute Link: http://youtu.be/bPvT5Pnfs7c
Donna J Pecora Relation to Deceased: Niece My thoughts and prayers go out to Uncle Cos, Charlie, Nancy Ann, and family. Aunt Nancy will be sadly missed. I think no matter where you stray, That I shall go with you a way. Though you may wander sweeter lands, You will not forget my hands, Nor yet the way I held my head Nor the tremulous things I said. You will still see me, small and white And smiling, in the secret night, And feel my arms about you when The day comes fluttering back again. I think, no matter where you be, You’ll hold me in your memory And keep my image there without me, By telling later loves about me. Dorothy Parker
Charlie Leccese Relation to Deceased: Son I wanted to add to the quick bio for my Mom. She was so much more than the words. There’s a lot to her life that I never saw. She grew up in the 30s and 40s but was someone who wanted the independent life that women weren’t necessarily allowed. She married later in life than most girls of that time. She worked Stromberg-Carlson and Kodak, in fact a “Rosie the Riveter” so to speak who worked at home during WWII while our boys (including my Dad) were over there. She was a golfer in a time when not many ladies were (I should have kept those bamboo clubs she started with, they just might have been worth something). She would have gone to college if her father allowed, but instead educated herself as a vociferous reader all her life. Once married to my Dad, the next 58 years were dedicated to raising us and keeping the house. I met someone who knew her from her working days and told about a trip to a dude ranch the girls took during the war. When I tried to get her to relate the story, she just dismissed it. “I don’t look in the past. That’s done, you can’t go back, always look forward.” And mostly she always did. Even in the last few years as she could no longer golf or do things she used to, she didn’t bemoan it, just focused on the things she could do – “Doing the best I can.” She was a scratch Bowler in the Parkettes for years, taught my Dad the game of golf, and he caught her enthusiasm for it. For 38 years at Ridgemont and for many retirement years in Florida, they enjoyed playing as much of the time as they could. She raised us all, and the acerbic wit that runs through us started from her sarcastic way of keeping us in line. She was an advocate of civil rights and anti-Vietnam War in the 60s (mostly I think part of the war thing was cause she didn’t want her son to go). She had strong interest in world events and followed closely so that even at the end of her life she was just as vociferous anti-Iraqi war in the 2000s as she had been about Vietnam in the 1960s. I think for every paragraph I write, I think of three new ones, so I’m going to stop here and just say: She lived a long, full and active life that started when Radio as just getting a foothold. She watched the world truly change from Model T to modern cars, flimsy prop planes to Space travel, Telgraph to Internet. It boggles the mind to think of how different the world was when she came into it and how she coped and adapted and embraced all the changes without skipping a beat (well, maybe not email nor Facebook). We will miss her. As we look back over time We find ourselves wondering ….. Did we remember to thank you enough For all you have done for us? For all the times you were by our sides To help and support us ….. To celebrate our successes To understand our problems And accept our defeats? Or for teaching us by your example, The value of hard work, good judgement, Courage and integrity? We wonder if we ever thanked you For the sacrifices you made. To let us have the very best? And for the simple things Like laughter, smiles and times we shared? If we have forgotten to show our Gratitude enough for all the things you did, We’re thanking you now. And we are hoping you knew all along, How much you meant to us.