Richard Moschinger
Helen Dorosh Moschinger
Rosa Maldonado Moschinger
Richard Moschinger and Helen Dorosh graduated out of Central Islip HS in 1951 and were married at St. John Of God Church on August 9th, 1952. They lived in CI for the next 28 years or so and had four children.
�Two boys and two girls. Dad (Richie) worked for Turner Construction in NYC for the whole time that we were growing up. He worked his way pretty close to the top too as he was a superintendent on his job. He was a great dad. He took great care of us and showed us all how to continue to have fun. He was our example of the Nike slogan. "Just Do It!"� � � Mom worked at the CI State Hospital on "Ward 95" for a good many years. I remember as a little kid the compassion that mom had for all living things. You don't step on bugs just because they are walking on the sidewalk. They just have "someplace to go". Her love for flowers and wildlife continues on in me, and even in my own children.When we were all grown up and out, Dad and Mom left NY in 1979 and moved to Houston where dad built the Texas Commerce Tower. It is still the biggest building in the Houston Skyline. When that job was over, they moved again and again depending on the next project. It was all just fine for mom as long as she had dad there. They loved each other so very much.� � Dad's job moved them to Lake Tahoe and that is when they realized that mom had a more serious form of a lung problem in the form of emphysemia. Being at that high altitude had made her very sick and so dad packed up and moved back to NY. Watertown this time where he worked in Fort Drum on a subdivision. I "inherited" his videos from that time and dad never lost his wide eyed wonderment and his youthful nature. He has videos of snowfalling from every angle and water falls he would see on the sides of the roads and he would stop just to film them. I found a "gem" on one of those films. Mom was filming my dad out on some wilderness field he took her to and he told her that he loved her. They never stopped the "going out to dinner" or the "going to the movies" things. Even when mom was slowed a bit by the illness dad would just walk a little slower.
They still held hands as they walked somewhere even after 39 years! Dad's job moved him to Tuscon Arizona. We all figured the air and the altitude may be a good thing for mom but shortly after they got settled in there dad began to experience pain in his lower back.
A few short months of this test and that test ended up showing that he had the worst form of lung cancer which had already spread throughout. He just loved life and was a joy to be around and he really did not want to "go". But some things we just don't have a choice about do we? He died the evening of July 17th 1992 with all of us right by his side rooting him on and telling him through our tears what a great job he did. Mom had him buried in a really neat cemetary in Tuscon. Richard was 59. He died just two weeks short of their 40th wedding aniversary. The people who were renting their house in Houston were informed that mom was moving back. She regained her position at the Volunteer hot line and worked with a shelter there for the years following for as long as she could. Although very lonely and missing dad, she did make a simple life for herself and seemed to be content. Moms health got to where it was difficult for her to walk any distance and so she had to stop her volunteer work.
My oldest brother Rick and his family lived there in Houston also and visited mom often but her real friendship there came by the way of Rick's wife, my sister in law and member of our family for nearly 30 years, Rosa. Rosa would often go to moms to have lunch or take coffee breaks as Rosa's job was not that far away. They had a good many years doing that and mom shared with me that they had some very nice friendly moments with each other. Mom was crazy about Rosa. Everyone was crazy about Rosa.
She was terrific and she had the incredible knack of making you just ....be loved. Job opportunites were pulling Rick's family north to Indiana in the winter of 99. Mom was still basically healthy enough to stay alone and wanted to do so, and she always had the choice of moving closer to her girls who also lived in Texas.� � � � � � � � �� � � � � � My brother Rick moved to Indiana first and got his family a place and settled in and waited for Rosa to get there in about a month or so. Rosa and Rick were high school sweethearts. Married in 1975. And this too is a great love story. Mom told me on the phone how Rick was so lonely without Rosa there and how he was fixing the new place really nice for her. Rosa stayed with mom and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and spent the next weeks packing up what was left for the move to Indiana. Rosa finally arrived in Indiana just a few days before Christmas.
...... and this is where this story gets really very sad.
It was December 23, 1999 and Rosa went Christmas shopping and wrapped gifts and put them under the tree. Later that night she thought she was having some sort of an asthma attack. It wasn't an asthma attack, it was a heart attack and Rosa died very suddenly at home. She was only 44 years old.
I think that mom just forgot about her own living and breathing and in her grief I would swear that mom died of a broken heart just 6 days later. We were all mind blown and shell shocked for a good amount of time as life was just so sad for us all. Helen passed away on Decemer 28, 1999. I think mom was 64.
Sylvia,
It seems that nobody ever tells you that even when you are an adult, that when you lose your last parent, it feels as if you have been orphaned. Suddenly I felt disconnected to everything except God.
I found the classmates Delphi board about two weeks to a month after mom and Rosa died. Finding the site for me was a way of escape at the time and a way of feeling connected at the same time. Getting in contact with people who knew mom, and "talking" to a lady that knew the girl I was named after, (Eileen Downs), hearing about the pathway from moms house when she was a kid to the school from a neighborhood friend, and so many other neat things seemed to help me in the whole healing thing I was embarking on. Being so very far away from my hometown, the internet was truely a blessing for me. Fond memories are good things to hear. They are good things to think. Memories connect us all somehow. I think we all may miss out on a lot just because we move away.
When classmates.com was going to "shut us down" it really hacked me off because I did not want this to end for any of us who were there. It was good for all of us. So I started the other free board on a "hunch" and enough people showed up there to keep it going. Nobody ever does something like this alone, although I am just hyper enough and organized enough to keep on top of things. It has been the most fun thing and the most rewarding thing I have done in a good many years.
So thats the story. I am doing more than well. I think maybe we all are. I feel good and I am happy. I really believe that mom, dad and Rosa have a big part in how well we all have seemed to "recover" from this whole sad thing. For every minute that they were with us we always knew that we were loved.
....and love never dies
-eileen moschinger
by: Anonymous
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
