Charlene DiPietro

Born on October 2, 1957 in Toronto, Canada, she was the daughter of Charles and Christina Phillips. Her family owned a cottage on Skeleton Lake, Ontario, and she was full of stories of days out on the boat and sunbathing on the dock. In her final weeks, these were the days she relived over and over again.

Charlene is survived by her husband, Thomas DiPietro, her daughters Christine DiPietro Michelle DiPietro, their husbands, Chris Greenwood and CJ Clark (respectively), her grandson Pietr Greenwood, sister Barbara Forsythe and her beloved dog Jade, who watched over her in those final days.

Charlene and Tom married Dec 10, 1983, on a whim. After the ceremony everyone thought they left to do the hanky panky, but they were instead getting photos with Santa Claus. (As her daughters writing this, it is nice to think that when our parents were young and beautiful and in love, they were the kind of people who might keep you waiting to sneak in love-making.)

Charlene loved to travel, and Tom was an airline mechanic who gave her a lifetime of flying benefits. They saw the world together. He was her caretaker in her final years and we (their daughters) cannot thank him enough for that.

In 2013 she finally became a US citizen, when going through separate immigration lines when returning home became annoying. She had waited so long to become a citizen that she was a suspicious person and the FBI got involved in her background check. (Thank you to everyone who vouched for her.)

When she couldn’t find good childcare for her daughters, she started an in-home daycare. Soon she was keeping a house full of children with people calling every day, desperate for someone to watch their own kids. Charlene founded New Horizons Child Care on May 15, 1995, Michelle’s fifth birthday, and worked to provide care for hundreds of children in the Clemmons community. Twenty-six years later Michelle took over the family business and carries on our mother’s legacy.

Charlene liked turning up the volume so loud that the neighbors could hear the music, once tried to initiate a food fight in her daughter’s middle school lunchroom, and always encouraged us to do the more fun, more terrifying thing. To put on some mascara and go out.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Christina and Charles Phillips, and her dear friend Linda Fromal.

A funeral service will be held at Vogler & Sons in Clemmons on February 15th at 3pm.

Charlene always said she didn’t like flowers but then would be delighted by a nice bouquet. But in lieu, send a donation to St. Judes Children's Research Hospital and a fond memory of her.