Born in 1928 to Polish immigrants, Josephine was one of thirteen children. Her family’s Polish heritage became a staple in her life, instilling in her a work ethic that literally began when she was just a youth. “When the family ran low on smoked kielbasa, a Polish fan-favorite food, the only place you could get it was in Polish Bayonne, N.J.,” adds Josephine’s youngest son Andrew, one of her six children. “So being one of the youngest, she was tasked with all the hard labor and had to walk over the Bayonne Bridge to buy it.”
After graduating from Port Richmond High School, one summer day found Josephine tagging along with her seven sisters on their way to South Beach. It was there where she met her future husband Daniel who, whenever asked how it all came to be, mentioned that he simply kicked a beach ball at the prettiest of the bathing beauties.
Daniel began basic training for the Army Air Forces in Alabama, but the couple kept in touch through letter writing. At the close of World War II, Josephine and Daniel were reunited and married in Elm Park’s old St. Adalbert’s R.C. Church.
Daniel worked as an architect while Josephine began raising the couple’s six children in the newlyweds former home on York Avenue in New Brighton. And if bringing up six kids wasn’t deserving enough for retirement, in her 60s Josephine worked as a doctor’s secretary, meeting future acting star Ricky Schroder as a child, who his mother used to bring along whenever she had an appointment.
But Josephine wasn’t yet ready to retire. While in her 80s, she took a job working as a housekeeper at Sacred Heart R.C. Church on Castleton Avenue in West Brighton. Says Rev. Louis Jerome, pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in New Brighton: “Jo was a dynamo and everything was done in her friendly, courteous, and endearing way. At 85 years old, she was still running up and down the stairs! I don’t think we’ll see the likes of her again.”
Josephine always credited swimming as being a big factor in her apparent fountain of youth discovery. She regularly swam laps at the YMCA and during summer months she enjoyed her own backyard pool. Said her eldest daughter Joanne, “Mom loved visiting me in the South of France. She would go for walks down the country roads, sometimes putting her feet in the water streams.”
Above all, Josephine’s signature hallmarks were her humility, loving devotion, and good vibes showered upon everyone. Says her oldest son James, “I always remember her taking me to Port Richmond on the 102 bus to shop at Garbers and Tirone’s shoe store.” Adds another son, Thomas, “She once took us to visit New York City, and noticed an elderly woman who had fainted due to the heat of summer. My mother was the only one to help her until an ambulance came.” And daughter Christine captures that sentiment, “She had a magic touch that could soothe an aching heart.”
With a special place in her heart for animals, Josephine enjoyed the company of her indoor and outdoor cats, as well as her son John’s dogs. During the height of the COVID-19 crisis when remaining indoors and isolation was the norm for a number of seniors, Josephine found comfort from her feline companions, who regularly perched themselves atop her lap. John’s wife Dorothea was always telling everyone that she was blessed with the kindest mother-in-law.
John sums up, “She always was a kind and forgiving person, not only to all of us, but to the animals and how they could sense that about her. Always giving of her time and efforts and never ever asking for anything in return. She was the perfect mother and friend.”
In addition to her six children, Josephine is survived by eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Josephine was noted as often saying that while occasionally visiting St. Peter’s Cemetery where Daniel and many of her family are buried, sometimes all you needed to do is visit such a place to be reminded of life’s fragility, where every minute is ticking away until the end, and to use those minutes as best you can.
