Josephine Scricca
What do you remember about Josephine? Share your stories and photos here, and invite others to come share their memories.
Josephine Scricca passed away on September 8, 2020, at 93 years of age. If you go by the odds, you shouldn't be reading this right now. That's because she was born on August 1, 1927 two months premature and weighing only 3lbs. At that time, it was very rare for premature babies to survive, and she was sent home from Waterbury Hospital because they felt there was nothing more they could do. However, two factors saved her. One was her Grandmother, who placed her crib near the kerosene stove in the kitchen and turned it on (in August!) to act as an incubator to keep her warm. The other was her indominable will. That was best illustrated by a story told by her father, who recalled that when he went into the nursery he heard a baby screaming at the top of her lungs and he said to himself, "I hope that's not my kid". It was his kid - her crying kept her breathing and alive.
Josephine was born and grew up in the East End of Waterbury Connecticut. Her father was Frank Quicquaro, and her mother was Christine DeSantis. She attended Anderson grammar school and later went to Wilby high school where she graduated in 1945. After graduation, she worked at Chase Brass and Copper, one of the 3 major factories in Waterbury that at the time nearly there everyone worked for. She was a bookkeeper there, but her heart was not in it. Her true calling was nursing, and she entered the Waterbury Hospital School of Nursing, where she graduated in 1954. She starting her nursing career in the Emergency Room, where she got her baptism of fire during the "Flood of '54", which every Waterbury native knows of. She recall going to work in a National Guard helicopter since the roads were all flooded and the hospital was cut off. Josephine later worked in the Waterbury hospital nursery, during the "Baby Boom" years where she met many of the nurses who later became some of her closest friends. Her time in the nursery was the favorite of her career, mainly because she got to work with the "premies", the babies born prematurely like her. After the baby boom became the baby bust in the 1970's, she reluctantly left the nursery to work as an industrial nurse at Scovill, which later became Century Brass. She primarily worked at the East Hospital during 2nd shift. She was thought of highly by the people she took care of there, and she thought of them not just her patients, but as "my guys". She finished out her industrial nursing career at Olin Corporation, retiring in 1990. However, she still continued to work part time in retirement as a substitute school nurse at some of the private academies in Connecticut until she was 72.
Of course, Josephine was a mom, too. She was the one who organized birthdays, holidays, and family vacations. Being a nurse, of course when anyone in the family got sick she always assumed the worse. But her sons always knew Mom was in their corner. Her main goal was to make sure they both went to college, which she never got the opportunity when she was young. She actually went to back to school part-time over the years, and eventually earned her associates degree in nursing from Mattatuck Community College shortly before she retired.
Josephine was married in April 1956 to Antonio (Tony) Scricca for over 55 years. She and her husband became Florida "Snow-Birds" in 1994, when they moved to the Lost Lakes development in Hobe Sound, and became permanent Florida residents in 2003. She was one of the original members of the Lost Lakes Woman's club, was also a member of the Italian club there, and belonged to the Book Club as well. Most importantly, she faithfully attended the Hobe Sound Presbyterian Church of Hobe Sound. She went to the monthly Ladies Lunches, and became close friends with many of the women there.
Her husband Tony died in 2011, and her baby sister Delores, died in 2015. She is survived by her two sons, Anthony who resides in Charlotte NC, and Joseph, who lives in Hobe Sound, FL.
What should be remembered about Josephine was how both her faith and her nursing mixed together. She was a Sunday school teacher in her youth, and at one time dreamed of being a missionary. During an interview for nursing school, when was asked why she wanted to be a nurse, she recall saying that for her it was a way to serve God. That was best illustrated by a story she told many years later of an incident when she was a nursing student. There was a polio outbreak at Boy Scout outing where one of the scouts became seriously ill and was brought to Waterbury Hospital and placed in an iron lung. They needed someone to suction out his mouth so he wouldn't choke to death. She volunteered to do that, even though they were risks associated with it. She had to stand over the boy for an entire shift cleaning out his airways to keep him breathing. Sadly she recalled that he boy didn't make it, which is probably why she never mentioned it before. Josephine may have been one of the last people he ever saw, and who knows, if you believe in these things, when her time came, he may have greeted her and led to the afterlife.
She will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by all those who knew her.