Elspeth Hyacinth Solanka, (nee Watler) of Upper Saddle River, NJ, 94, passed away peacefully on Monday May 4th, 2021. Born in Lower Valley, Grand Cayman, August 25th, 1926. She was the 3rd oldest, 11 children, of Lanaman Watler and Jane Catherine Bodden.
She was married to Robert Walters, Navy Vet of World War II, in 1947, until his passing in 1962. In 1974, she married Peter Solanka, until his passing in 2011.
Hyacinth or Hy is survived by brothers: Charles and Melbourne Watler, Lower Valley, Grand Cayman; sister’s Evangeline Moeller, and Halceyone Bartel, Holiday, Florida, Lavern Daly, Lafayette, NJ. Hy had two children, Beverly and Richard Walters, Atlantic Beach, NY. Pre-deceased: brother’s, Ellsworth, Keithbourne, and Stacy; sisters, Eleanor, and Varley.
Hy was forced, economically, to work when her husband, Robert, died after a long illness in Valley Hospital. Reverend Minick was very helpful, during those years. She was proud of her 37 years at A & P and Grand Union, on Chestnut Ridge Road. She was one of the few women in the Butcher’s or Amalgamated Meat Cutter’s Union. She liked her pension, since 1992. She also assisted tough customers, one request was Schraft’s lemon sherbet for Pat Nixon’s husband, or aged Prime steaks. This was the Grand Union decades.
Hy was a member of the Old Stone Church, Upper Saddle River. A conflict arose, when she was eligible for double time and half, for Sunday work, in the deli department. She went to Mass on Saturday, across town, to avoid missing church services.
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