Helen May DeMicco, (nee: Keating), 92, passed away peacefully on Sunday, April 30, 2017, but her legacy will go on for generations.
Funeral is from the Mastapeter Funeral Home, 400 Faitoute Ave., Roselle Park on Friday, May 5, 2017 at 8:45am. A Funeral Mass will follow to St. Theresa R. C. Church in Kenilworth, NJ. Visitation will be on Thursday, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9pm on May 4, 2017.
She was born Helen May Keating on May 7, 1924 to the late William and Mildred Keating on small farm in the hamlet of Pine Bush in the Town of Crawford near Shawangunk, NY.
Plain and simply, she loved life and for her, life was all about family and hers was big; 14 children, 23 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and all of the wonderful family and good times that came with them.
At the age of 8, she moved with her family from New York to an apartment in Linden, NJ and then to a duplex and finally a home, both in Kenilworth, NJ. Her father died when she was 16 and grew up with her siblings in a small house on 14th street under her mother’s care.
After completing high school, she found work as a clerk at Prudential in Newark, NJ, and then as a clerk at the shipyards in Kearney. In those days, with no television to entertain them, Helen and her brothers and sisters would find themselves spending Friday and Saturday evenings at the movies or roller rink.
It was the rink in Roselle, NJ that Helen met her future husband, Vincent J. DeMicco from Elizabeth. When Vince casually asked Helen how many children she wanted, Helen responded “20” without hesitation. She joked that he proposed anyway and they were married on September 5, 1943, eventually settling in an apartment above the family fruit market on Elizabeth Avenue, where they began raising their family.
When they outgrew the three bedroom apartment, Helen and Vinnie moved their family to a new home in Cranford in 1956, where the family grew to include 14 children in all. In fact, Helen was pregnant 19 times over 21 years. While Vince worked two jobs starting in1961, Helen worked double time keeping the children clothed, fed, and going to school.
As the family matured and their older children married, moved out or attended college, Helen worked part-time as a cook in the cafeteria at David Brearley High School in Kenilworth. She and Vinnie found time to occasionally travel in the U. S., Canada and Italy. They also learned ballroom dancing and joined local dance clubs, played pinochle with friends and took regular trips to play blackjack in Atlantic City.
In 1955, Helen and Vince sold the family home in Cranford and moved to the Silver Ridge retirement community in Berkeley Township. Vince died at the age of 84 in March of 2006, and Helen poured herself into spending time with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom survived her in addition to four sisters in law; Jane Keating, Gloria Pasquale, Constance DeRose, and Dolores Carr and her husband Les. She had two brothers Bill and Bob and two sisters Doris and June, whom predeceased her.
Helen’s surviving children are Dianne and her husband Carl Adlassnig and their children, Sharon and Frank Ferraro and their seven children, Kim and Pete Chericello and their two children, Carl and Michelle Adlassnig and their two children; her son Vincent, Jr. and his wife Sandra and their children Natalie and Greg Sandelli and their two children, Carrie and Richard Sandler and their two children; son Daniel DeMicco and Marilyn; son Michael and wife Judith, and their children, Melissa and her wife Rebecca and their two children, Erin and Ryan Sheets and their two children, and Michael DeMicco and Tara Catalano; son Andrew and wife Dagmar DeMicco and his daughter Stacie and her son Andrew and her daughter Nicole; Stephan DeMicco and his wife Jeanne Fox; daughter Nancy DeMicco and David Shaheen; daughter Christine and her husband Kur Kugele and their two children, Jeffrey and Lauren and her son Ty; daughter Karen and Charles Daly and her son Jonathan and wife Triana and their two children; son Mark and wife Melanie DeMicco and their son Escher and Mark’s children Chrissie, Nick, Allison, and Monica; sons Scott and Christopher DeMicco; son Paul and wife Donna DeMicco and their three sons Matthew, Patrick, and Daniel; and finally son Rick and wife Judith and their three children Thomas, Joseph, and Kate.
In lieu of flowers please make donations to Marie H. Katzensach School for the Deaf in Ewing, NJ, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, New York, or the Chrohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, Albert Lea, MN