Concetta Occhipinti, 102, of Brooklyn, NY, left this world surrounded by her loving family on November 17, 2024, in the peaceful comfort of her daughter's home.

Preceded in death by her beloved husband Giorgio (d. 1981), Concetta is survived by a daughter, Jeanie Occhipinti (Antonio Esposito); two granddaughters, Georgette Bergam (Dr. Miro Bergam) and Ariana Malik; and seven great-grandchildren: Scarlett, Miroslav, Noah, Chloe, Holden, Logan, and Hayden Bergam.

The eldest of four daughters born to Giorgio and Giuseppina, Concetta was born on October 5, 1922 in the ancient Sicilian city of Ragusa, Ibla, in what was then still the Kingdom of Italy. Orphaned by her mother at the age of nine, Concetta would be forced to hang up the uniform of Mussolini's Piccole Italiane, leaving forever behind her schoolgirl days at the convent in order to assume the mantle of homemaker while her father travelled for work as a building contractor. From baking bread in the wood-fired oven that Giorgio had refashioned to her small stature, to laundering in the woodland stream even as it iced, to laying the two-year-old sister she had reared from a nursling to her final rest, the trials of those early years would become foundational to the ethos of hard work and personal sacrifice that would define Concetta's life.

In 1941, Concetta was wed to Giorgio, the eldest son in a family of proprietors and merchants in upper Ragusa. With the general store that they operated in full swing as a strategic provisioning center for the war powers, Concetta worked tirelessly to build the goodwill of the Occhipinti name. Within the extended family household, she assumed responsibility over the youngest Occhipinti boy, and prayed alongside her mother-in-law for the safe return from war of Giorgio and his brother Giovanni. As the Battle of Sicily ushered in the Italian Armistice, the family's hope for Giovanni's return from the Eastern Front dimmed permanently. In that microcosm of a lifetime, Concetta suffered recurrent loss as she struggled to carry a child to term, and often contemplated how the dynastic yoke of the family business would circumscribe the fate of her eventual child as it had Giorgio's. With the arrival of their first and only child at the wind-down of the decade, Concetta resolved to join Giorgio on the fabled American shores, after deciding that he would go ahead to appraise the prospects. Together, they would enter the headwinds of change, possessed of a singularly modern sensibility.

Not long after boarding the S.S. LaGuardia in the gray morning light of January 1950, Concetta received word that well-to-do, childless patrons wished to buy from her the infant daughter that she carried in her arms. As unfathomable to Concetta as it was in line with life's great ironies, the terrible proposition brought mother and baby under the protective purview of the ship's captain, where they remained until reaching safe harbor in New York. Reunited there with Giorgio, they made their way to the desolate New York City tenement that would be their ground zero in re-inventing a future for the baby that they now called Jeanie. Pained to see Giorgio go from a patron of industry to an ordinary laborer, Concetta remained at home with Jeanie until she reached 18, as such was Giorgio's most ardent wish. When Concetta finally joined the workforce as a factory seamstress, she worked painstakingly for yet another decade of her life, this time sewing in an assembly line. Concetta's expertise centered on what is arguably the most unforgiving item in garment piecework manufacturing: the shoulder of the men's suit jacket. Fittingly, she became known for that single part which so effortlessly brings together the whole –– and with a signature style, every time.

The buoyant matriarch of the extended family in which Jeanie would rear two daughters, Concetta thanked God every day for granting her the special providence of allowing her to remain by Jeanie's side for life. For Georgette and Ariana, Nonna was the anchor, the rose and the sustenance, the one who righted the frame of reference in which their own life stories continue. Concetta's was the counsel that was indelible, the humor that never stopped taking you by surprise, and a politic that was princely in its reach. A trusted friend and confidante of many, Concetta will stand in memory as a brilliant point of light. She is, to all who have known and loved her, the one whom you hope to meet again and again in the still untold passes of life.

In the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all of the angels and saints in Heaven, may Concetta be abundantly protected as she makes her journey Home.


-   -   -   -   -   -


Visitation
Sunday, December 1, 2024
1 PM - 5 PM

Clavin Funeral Home
7722 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209
Complimentary Valet Parking Available


Mass of Christian Burial
Monday, December 2, 2024
10:15 AM

Our Lady of Angels R.C. Church
7320 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209
Parking available in the parking lot on 73rd Street between 3rd & 4th Avenues.


Cemetery
Calvary Cemetery
49-02 Laurel Hill Boulevard
Woodside, Queens, NY 11377
Grave Location: 4th Calvary - Section 71 - Plot 69 - Grave 20