Annette Agnes Caggiana, beloved aunt to Pamela, Allyson, Noreen and James and beloved great-aunt to Katherine, Andrew, Ben, Lauren, Rachel, Nicole, Peter, Natalie and Noelle, transitioned from this life to be in the presence of Christ on August 12, 2018. Annette was born February 18, 1923 in the City of New York to parents Hanorah O’Hara Caggiana and Nicholas Alocious Caggiana. In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her younger brother John Nicholas Caggiana and her younger sister Noreen O’Hara Welch.
In 1926, when Annette was three years old, she and her family moved to E 26th Street in the East Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where she lived until she moved to Maryland in 2009 when she was 86 years old. For five years in Maryland, she lived with Noreen, Noreen’s husband Clark and their family in Clarksville, Maryland. Following an injury and extended recovery, Annette then lived for four years at Sunrise Assisted Living of Silver Spring, Maryland until the time of her passing at the age of 95.
Annette attended Manual Training High School in Brooklyn New York, a fierce rival to James Madison High School. She was very active in high school, serving as a class vice president and was in many clubs including the Biology club, Math club, Peace club and Thread and Needle club. After her high school graduation in 1941, she took chemistry, electronics and mechanics classes at The Cooper Union in Manhattan and then went to work as a chemist for the Signal Corp of the U.S War Department. From there, she worked for 30 years as a chemist microscopist for the Poison Control Center of the Department of Health for the City of New York, where she retired from at the age of 58 in May of 1981 to care for her mother Hanorah.
Annette was very intelligent, very witty and unconditionally loved her family, including her treasured dogs (Taffy, Bruce 1, Bruce 2, Mindy, Susie, Lance, Missy, Betsy, Cleo, Beau and Honey). She cherished school-break visits from her three nieces and nephew throughout their childhoods, spoiling them with toys, desserts, Broadway plays, tours of New York, trips to Coney Island and Brighton Beach, roller skating, disco dancing, movies, comic-books, Italian sausage and Italian cookies, and endless hours of puzzles, paint by number sets, doll playing and hide and seek in her old Brooklyn home. For decades, she saved endless stray dogs and cats in her neighborhood. She enjoyed hobbies of needlepoint embroidery, crocheting and reading. She created tapestries both large and small which became beautiful pieces of art around her home. She lived a full-filling life, dedicated to her immediate family, her extended family of nieces and nephews, and to her friends, both from the Brooklyn neighborhood and from her work. She showed us how to give love and how to be loved. And to dance the ‘funky chicken’ like no one is ever watching.
Please make contributions in memory of Annette A. Caggiana to ASPCA at https://www.aspca.org/
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