Edith M. Mingari

Edith Margaret Mingari went by several names. Although she preferred to be called “Edie,” she was also known as a beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin, wife, sister-in-law, mom, aunt, mother-in-law, and grandmother — but, by far, her two favorite names were “Mom” and “Grammee.”

Edie was born in Plainfield, NJ, where she graduated High School. Her favorite subject was history, and it provided the basis for her lifelong love and respect for democracy, America, and all the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms and privileges we all strive to enjoy. Edie was a smart, fun-loving and strikingly beautiful blonde teenager who loved to pal around with her best friend Jenny during those happy “American Graffiti” days of the 1950s. She loved the music and cars of that decade and could tell you the make, model and year of those iconic vehicles, like the ‘57 Chevy Bel Air, as she went cruising with friends up and down Front Street on Thursday nights with all the car radios playing the likes of Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard.

She enjoyed her first job as a cashier in a grocery store, was always good at math and finances, and at the age of eighteen, Edie married Joseph Mingari, who would soon become a career firefighter. The following year they were Blessed with their first child, Lisa Ann. Two years later they had a son, Joseph James, and seven years after that another son, Michael Thomas.

Edie had many innate talents which she always worked hard to develop and lovingly use to create a beautiful, warm and nurturing home-life for her family and herself. Among those were her supreme culinary skills. Through the years she read stacks of cookbooks like some people read novels, and attended cooking classes with world class instructors from New Jersey to New Orleans. Edie also had excellent design skills, both in fashion and interior decorating. She was always in tune with the latest trends and styles, and loved “feathering her nest” inside and out with lots of color and flowers, as well as dressing up to the nines for an evening out on the town. Surprisingly, despite her many gifts, and the fact that she could “really light up a room,” she was always very humble, private and shy.

Her family outgrew the first home she and Joe bought together in the mid-1960s, a duplex fixer-upper in North Plainfield, NJ, and in 1976 they found the home of her dreams in Brick, NJ. It was a brand new four bedroom, three bath Cape Cod style house with central air, on half an acre, and Edie felt like the luckiest woman in the world. This “forever home” became what was to be the “center of the universe” for her, her children, and later, her grandchildren, Ella and Andrew, for 47 years!!! Here she worked tirelessly to make birthdays and holidays magical, from New Year’s Eve, to 4th of July, right up to Thanksgiving & Christmas. Edie was “the rock” of the family — solid, reliable, steady, and strong. She always cared for and placed others before herself, all the while enduring the relentless pain that came with her body’s many autoimmune-related illnesses. She was a fighter to the end, and a true Taurus: Determined, strong, and stubborn like a bull, but with more love than could ever be measured.

From 1981 until 2020 Edie worked in the eyewear & eye care business. A loyal and hard-working employee of Eyes First Vision Center for just shy of four decades, she started at an entry level and later advanced to a managerial position for many years. She had great respect and appreciation for her “work-family” and especially enjoyed the annual Christmas party with the hilariously competitive prize-winning games they played during which she and Dr. Malloy often teamed up triumphantly.

Very much a homebody, Edie didn’t travel very much, but she did enjoy vacations at the Jersey Shore, a road trip to Disney World with her family in 1975, and despite a fear of flying, she somehow summoned the courage to fly that same year to Bermuda with her husband Joe, along with her brother and sister-in-law, Eugene and Diane Snyder. Years later she once again mustered the courage to fly with her mother to visit her daughter and son-in law, who were living in Iowa in 1991. Finally, she battled her fear one last time to enjoy a hilariously fun trip to New Orleans with her son Joseph and his friends in the year 2000. But mostly she enjoyed countless day trips to craft shows, flower & shrub nurseries, state parks, and other local and regional destinations, and of course, family visits (which also included her “grandcats”, as she referred to Joseph’s feline fur-babies, Oscar & Betty).

Edie’s life was filled with much love, joy, beauty, laughter and happiness, as well as many painful challenges. But, for Edie, the only thing that ever mattered most to her was her children and grandchildren. Her love and concern for the health and well-being of her children and grandchildren extended to ALL children, everywhere. She often cried and prayed for any child in distress, whether they were a family member, a personal acquaintance, or even in a story on the evening news. So…

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the charity that was always closest to Edie’s heart — St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. https://www.stjude.org/

Edie is survived by her children, Lisa Ann Mingari Brophy (husband Thomas Joseph Brophy), Joseph James Mingari, and Michael Thomas Mingari, along with her grandchildren, Ella Marie Mingari and Andrew Gene Mingari.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.DEliaFuneralHome.com for the Mingari family.