Love and condolences to the Urbano and Kane families

UPDATE (Wed 29 April): As friends and family of the Urbanos and Kanes have been arriving here via web searches, I wanted to provide a compendium of individual obituaries and plans for visitation and funeral.

Visitation for all will be at Thiele-Reid Family Funeral Home, 585 Belgrove Drive, Kearny, NJ 07032, (201) 991-1031 on Thursday, 30 April, and Friday, 1 May from 2:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Funeral liturgy will be offered for all, at St. Stephen's Church, in Kearny, on Saturday, 2 May, at 11:00 a.m.

The Urbanos will then be laid to rest at St. Nicholas Cemetery in Lodi; the Kanes will be laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.

Individual obituaries:

Jeanette Urbano
Salvatore Urbano
Anna Kane
Francis Kane
Rose Kane

Each obituary contains information for making memorial gifts in lieu of flowers.

I just received terrible news last evening from one of my Jersey homeboys regarding the family of our beloved St. Mary's High School classmate, Rose Urbano Olcese. Rose's parents, two aunts, and uncle were killed this weekend when hit by a tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike while heading to a family wedding near Philadelphia.

The full story is here if you are so inclined but suffice it to say that this is an unimaginable tragedy for this wonderfully loving family and all who know them. Rose's father, Salvatore, came to the US from Sicily just after World War II and had been a researcher at Hoffmann-LaRoche at the US headquarters of this Swiss-based pharma giant. Rose's mother, Jeanette, was, like my own Mom, a nurse at Passaic General Hospital, the place where pretty much all of us were born. They would have celebrated their own wedding anniversary today, 41st or 48th depending on the press reports.

I have a quick happy memory of Rose's mother, one of a great many that are being shared among all who were fortunate to know this family. Rose was/is smart and beautiful and, as such, was avidly sought by suitors in our small class of 72 students. I received the grace of being invited to go with Rose to our Sadie Hawkins dance during sophomore year. Since the tradition is that the girl does the inviting and arrangements, it was up to her Mom to pick us up and take us to the dance. She showed up at my house in their station wagon wearing a chauffeur's cap with Rose sitting in back where I was to join her and be transported for one of the high points of my high school memories.

As social networking would have it, Rose and I caught up again on LinkedIn over the last year to share professional info as she was moving to the Dallas, Texas, area and in need of some employment contacts. We exchanged family photos - she has three adult children, all successful themselves - and she ended up with gainful employment down there. We lamented the years that have passed with everyone falling in and out of touch, as life just simply is.

And as with many old relationships, we come back together at weddings and funerals.

I cannot imagine having to get together to deal with the aftermath of this far reaching tragedy. As I suspect that Rose and her brother, John, are too overwhelmed to set up Legacy.com pages, I'd like to at least offer our little piece of the blogosphere for Urbano and Kane family members to register their memories and express their condolences.

[Many thanks to the chain of Joe, Emil, Mark, Steve, and Tommy to be sure I got this news]