Ellen Semmelhaack

Ellen is survived by her loving husband of 53 years, Carl Semmelhaack, four children, Paul, Mary, John and Ann, and seven grandchildren, Leah, Aryana, Dylan, Jack, Flynn, Henry and Theodore (Teddy). Ellen is also survived by her four brothers, John, Daniel, Thomas and Patrick Browne. A Funeral Mass will be held at St Jerome Catholic Church, 10895 Hamlin Blvd, Largo, Florida, on Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 1pm. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made in Ellen’s name to Save the Children.

Ellen’s life’s work was her family, friends and those in need. She was born in Ballyduff, County Kerry, Ireland to the late Mary (O’Sullivan) Browne and John Browne. Clever, energetic and determined to have a profession, Ellen said the choices available to women in 1950’s rural Ireland were “farmer’s wife, teacher or nurse. I chose nurse.” She left home at 17 for training at Old Church Hospital, Essex, England. There she received awards for her achievements and laddered a stocking or two climbing through the window after curfew.

Wanting further opportunity, she was the first in her family to emigrate to America and later helped two of her brothers do the same. She landed in New York City, worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and met Carl at an Irish dance. They married and moved to Pennsylvania to raise their family. Ellen returned to work as a charge nurse at Brandywine Hall Nursing Home in West Chester, PA. She enjoyed her summers in either Brigantine, New Jersey or taking her children home to Ireland. After retirement, Ellen volunteered as a nursing home ombudsman for the State of Pennsylvania. She continued serving the sick and elderly in Florida as a volunteer in the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital hospice unit.

Dubbed “the worker” by her grandchildren, she was always moving. Her customarily massive vegetable, flower and rock gardens kept her and her occasionally willing children busy, and her neighbors supplied with fresh, canned and pickled produce. She made friends easily and her routine morning walk made her a visitor at gardens and yards of people named and unnamed. She greeted everyone, knew her neighbors and would finish a job before you knew it needed doing. She solved problems with newspaper clippings, contacts she met on her walks and many many treasures. She was full of love, charity and ambition, Irish but fiercely proud of her American citizenship and grateful for a life she said exceeded her dreams.

So intimately tied together, we find that the story of her life is the story of our lives. She is all around us. Loved with a love beyond all telling, missed with a grief beyond all tears. Aufwiedersehen, Grandma.

How to donate to Save the Children: Donate at savethechildren.org. Alternatively, checks/money orders should be mailed to: Save the Children, 501 Kings Highway East - Suite 400, Fairfield, CT 06825 Make checks payable to: Save the Children . Please write reason for donation in the memo field.