Gasland Message
Name: Keno
E-Mail:
Subject: Carmela Menechino (1921-2014)
Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014
Time: 11:40:22 AM
Remote Address: 199.114.231.242
Message ID: 283923
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 283923
Carmela Menechino (1921-2014)
I lost my 91 year old mother this morning shortly after midnight, New York Time. She suffered a heart attack last Thursday morning, and on Friday was told that she needed a new heart valve inserted or she would soon die. Mom declined the procedure, as she had been living the last 2 years or so in pain from arthritis, and she told my sisters and I many times that she wanted the pain to end and go on to heaven. My mother was a Catholic, she very much believed in her religion, and she could never understand why 3 of her 4 children left the religion, but still, she accepted that fact. I may not believe in the heaven she believed in, but if ever anybody was going to get into this place that she so very much wanted to be in, it was her.
The thing that really hurts and has been bugging me all week long, is I knew she was dying and I didn’t have the cash to get back to New York to see her one last time, nor will I be able to attend her funeral. My mother said to me about 2 years ago, that she didn’t expect me to attend her funeral, knowing that since I don’t fly, she told me it didn’t make any sense to travel for 2 and a half days for a one day wake and funeral (she restated that in our last phone call on Friday, too). But I told her that of course it made sense, since she’s my mother, but then she said that a funeral is held really for the family of the deceased, not the person who died, and that I should just hold something in Colorado with my family instead. So I’ll do that once my kids get back here (they are on their way there for her services at least).
Below is a short obituary I just wrote for mom. But I can tell you this, I could not have asked for a better, or more loving mother, it would not have been possible. Everybody who knew her, loved her. I can say that I never knew of her to ever get into a major argument with anybody – ever, she was as peaceful as any person could be and never had a bad word to say about anybody who she knew.
Carmela Guliano -Menechino (June 12, 1921 – March 13, 2014)
Carmela Guliano-Menechno was one very special woman. She was the third of six children born to Pat and Antoinette Guliano in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in both Brooklyn and Queens, NY. In 1946 at the age of 24, she was hired as one of the very first employees for the new United Nations, as a secretary, where she got to meet and work with several well-known diplomats of that time. As she noted, the best part of her job while at the UN was to get to know and work under former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was one of the UN’s first delegates. She described Mrs Roosevelt as the nicest person who anybody would want to work for - or with.
In 1947 she met, and soon after married, Lewis Menechino; their marriage would last almost 55 years, until his death in 2002. She left the UN in 1950 to raise her children and would return to the workforce in 1971, where she worked for the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services of NY State (BOCES) on Long Island, until her retirement in 1986.
Carmela leaves behind one sister, one brother, three daughters, one son, 12 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren, along with many other family members and friends. She is truly going to be missed dearly by us all.
Rest in peace mom, I love you,
Lewis Jr (aka Keno… My mother named me Lewis and was the only person I would allow to call me by that name, as she never did care for my lifelong nickname).
Below are the 6 photos I have online of my mother, with family, I figured I would share them here with my internet Gasland family.
This first one is of the Guliano family around 1930:
My mother is standing in front of her father. In this family photo, only my Uncle Pat, the youngest boy to my mother’s left, is still alive today. My Aunt Marie, who also survives, wasn’t born yet when this photo was taken.Next, Mom at the work at the UN:
This photo was taken in 1946, at the old UN building on Long Island, before the new UN headquarters were built in Manhattan.
Mom and Dad in 1998:
Photo taken a week before their 50th Wedding Anniversary
Me and Mom in Sept, 2007:
This was the last time I would get to visit with her in NY.
Mom with her great-grandson Cooper
This photo also taken in ’07, 2 days after the one above; me and my grandson stayed at her place for 10 days on this visit.
The last photo I have of her:
Taken this past Xmas, 2013. RIP Mom, you were one fine lady.