Obituary of Sheila Semeraro

Sheila A. Semeraro, a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, passed away at the Merrimack County Nursing Home in Boscawen, NH on Saturday morning, May 23, 2009. The wife of Joseph J. Semeraro she was 72 years old. Sheila was born in Cambridge. She was the daughter of the late Thomas and Gertrude McIntire. She was raised and educated in Watertown. Sheila and her husband settled in Burlington in 1962 where they raised their five sons. Sheila received an Associates Degree from Cardinal Cushing College. She worked as a Bus Driver for Fiore Bus. She also worked as a Secretary for Travis Associates and Raytheon. Sheila was very involved with the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts in Burlington. She was the Head Den Mother for Pack 522. She was a talented seamstress and she enjoyed sewing, knitting and crocheting. Sheila and her husband moved to Center Barnstead in New Hampshire in 1999. Her most important role in life was that of wife, mother, and grandmother. Sheila and her husband Joe would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 13. Sheila is the beloved wife of Joseph J. Loving mother of Joseph Jr. & his wife Sheila of Billerica, Thomas & his wife Debra of Groton, John & his wife Tammy of Burlington, Paul & his wife Jennifer of Pepperell, and Robert & his wife Sara of Burlington. Sister of the late Paula Oliver. Grandmother of Zach, Danny, Mac, Crosby, Jake, Maddie, Gabby, Johnny, Nicole, Vanessa, Alex, Katie, Emma, Gina, Anthony and the late Morgan. Funeral from the Edward V. Sullivan Funeral Home, 43 Winn Street Burlington (Exit 34 off Rt. 128, Woburn side) on Thursday, May 28 at 9 a.m. Followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Margaret’s Church, 111 Winn St., Burlington at 10 a.m. Visiting hours Wednesday 4-8 p.m. Interment in Pine Haven Cemetery, BURLINGTON. Memorials in Sheila’s name may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 311 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA 02472 www.alz.org. A Message from Tom As much as we didn’t want to believe it, we knew this day would come. It’s been hard watching Mom fail little by little over the past few years. It’s hard to understand how someone as good and loving, someone as caring and at one time so full of life could deserve such a fate. Mom was a beautiful person. She was beautiful from the inside out. Anyone that knew her loved her, unless you said anything bad about her boys. That was the one sure way to bring out the beast in her. I have witnesses to that. There was never any doubt how much she loved us. We were the light of her life and she never let us forget that. Right now when we think of Mom, it’s hard not to see her as she was in the past few years, and I regret that her grandchildren really never had much of a chance to enjoy her as she was before she got sick. But you kids should know that the sun rose and set on you in Nana’s eyes. She loved each and every one of her grandchildren, and would just beam with pride whenever she talked about you. Mom, Nana, is the reason we as a family are as close as we are. It wasn’t that she made us love and care for each other, that was the way she was and we were raised that way. To Mom, her family was the most important thing in the world. We always felt loved and protected growing up, Mom made sure of that. We all have so many beautiful and funny memories about Mom. It was important to her and Dad that we all ate together as a family. I remember she would sit at the supper table right along the middle where the two leafs met. It would be after dinner and Mom would sit back while we talked about whatever, and something funny would be said, and Mom would start laughing, and her belly made the leafs pop up and down. That made us laugh and the more the leafs popped up and down the harder she laughed. You can imagine what it looked like. I know, it’s odd, but that stands out in our memory. The one thing that stands out the most though is her love of St Patrick’s Day. You talk about proud to be Irish, Mom practically turned green on St Patrick’s Day. Her corned beef and cabbage family dinner grew in to an annual neighborhood party. Every year friends and family knew where to be on St Patrick’s Day. She even got her Italian husband singing Oh Danny Boy with Tom Rutherford. It really took on a life of its own over the years. We still hold Mom’s annual St Patrick’s Day party, only now upwards of 70 friends and family come to celebrate. This is what Mom started with her love of being Irish. It will take on a whole new meaning now. One beautiful thing stood out throughout the hardship of the past few years, and that was how Dad stepped up and came through for Mom when she needed him most. He’s always been loyal to Mom. There was never any doubt how much he loved her, but the way he took care of Mom, and protected her, even from herself sometimes is nothing short of a beautiful if not tragic love story. As hard as this has been for all of us, we can’t imagine how hard it’s been for him. But he never left her side. With our busy family lives it’s been hard to visit as much as we wanted to, but we always took comfort knowing that Dad was there by Moms side, comforting her, taking care of her, and just being with her so she wouldn’t be alone. I know a big part of it was that Dad needed to be with her, because of how much he loved her. We can’t tell you how much that meant to us, even now, knowing that Mom wasn’t alone. It’s hard to say goodbye to someone who was our hero for so many years. Mom’s faith brought her through so many tough times. With all that she had ailing her, we were the ones questioning why, Mom never lost her faith. Mom always told us how proud of us she was. I wish we had one more chance to tell her how lucky and proud we are to have had her as our Mother.