Edith R. Szekely

Edith R. Szekely, age 96 years, of Raritan Township, NJ, died Saturday, April 18, 2020, at the Hunterdon Care Center, Raritan Township, NJ.

Born in Lustenau, Austria, June 13, 1923, she was the daughter of the late Hans and Marie Grahamner Hagen. Edith formerly resided in Ormond Beach, Fl and in Summit, NJ for the last thirty-five years.

An administrative assistant, she worked for American Hoechst chemical manufacturing company. An avid traveler, she was a member of the Central Presbyterian Church in Summit, NJ, and the Ormond Beach Presbyterian Church in Florida. Edith was known to always have a welcome home that was open to family and friends.

Below is a written tribute from her loving son Peter:

My mom left us on Saturday, about two months short of her 97th birthday. In truth, she had been slowly slipping away for a few years. She had been living with a slow-growing cancer. Her horizons were limited to a nursing home. She was only as mobile as her wheelchair allowed. And her mind was not what it used to be, though still sharp enough to reason that she had probably overstayed her welcome on the planet.

Of course, none of that makes her final exit any less sad. She was the nicest person I ever knew. And she made friends everywhere she went, right up to the end. Everyone liked her.

The saddest part was that her Hunterdon County, New Jersey, nursing home was closed to visitors for the past couple of months to blunt the spread of the coronavirus. There were a few positive cases there, but if she had it (we don’t know), she was spared the classic symptoms. In her last couple of days, we’re told that she just stayed in bed, refused food or her daily meds and slept a lot until she didn’t wake up. When my sister knocked on her first-floor window on Friday, she opened her eyes, smiled and nodded off again.

Edith Rose Marie Szekely (nee Hagen) endured the ravages of war in her native Austria before meeting and marrying my father, a Hungarian “displaced person,” in its aftermath. As refugees, they sought a new life in Canada. After Eva and I came along, we moved to the States.

An unexpected chapter opened in my mom’s life when I was 13, and she and my father split up. She went from housewife to working woman, taking bi-lingual clerical jobs at German companies, Siemens and Hoechst. She became a single parent way before it was cool. She found ways to make ends meet that I still don’t understand. And she never complained.

Working opened her to a new world of people, many of whom became friends to the end – mostly their ends, because she outlived them. During her 25 years as a retiree in Florida, I was always sure to check before going to see her, because someone else was always visiting.

I owe my mom so much. But mostly I’m grateful for the example she set of accepting others as they are and cherishing the many friends she had. It makes me appreciate my own friends even more and realize that I need to do better at staying in touch. As Clarence the angel wrote after George Bailey helped him get his wings, “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.” My mother was no failure. In fact, she was the richest woman in town.

Arrangements are private under the direction of the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. Memorial contributions in Edith’s name can be made to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22478, Oklahoma City, OK 73123.

For further information or to send an online condolence, please visit www.holcombefisher.com.