There are not enough kind words in the dictionary to describe Josephine Massicotte-Brown. She was the ultimate caregiver in her work and her personal life. Her thoughtfulness, strength, warmth, compassion for others, talents, and her love for her family and the work she did were boundless.

Born and raised in the same neighborhood, many people saw her as the mayor of Park Slope. She couldn't walk a block without running into someone she knew, and she was loved and adored by everyone.

As a mother and wife, she was the core of the family, encouraging, supportive, and loving and she always brought everyone together with her amazing kitchen prowess, expressing the purest of love through her cooking.

She cherished her children Sara and Joanna and she doted on them to everyone and anyone whenever she had the chance. She was proud of her family and her extended family, which included many other children in the neighborhood whom she treated like sons and daughters. (Let's not forget to mention her love and adoration for her cats Dutch & Scooter, and the many cats who preceded them-meow!).

Together for 49 years (married for 45), she and her husband Michael loved to travel and lived for cruising and the spa. In their travels, they enjoyed visiting places like Hawaii, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. They made many new friends. Josephine was an avid animal lover. Some of the happiest times she and Michael spent together included excursions where they were swimming with dolphins and, to Josephine's unabashed and glowing joy, interacting with monkeys.

For 30 years, Josephine worked at The New York Memory Center (initially founded in 1983 as the Park Slope Geriatric Center. Her job titles from when she started as program staff in 2000 to when she retired as the Executive Director in 2021, were never enough to truly describe the angel, expert, and force that she was in the field of dementia care. She was honored with the Woman of Distinction award in 2014 for her work building the Lotus Program, the nation's first early intervention and support program for people in the initial stages of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Her work stretched far beyond the center. It was who she was, a Caregiver with limitless compassion. Especially for seniors, whom she held a special place in her heart from the time she was a teenager, singing "Singing in the Rain" and doing a towel dance to make her charges on the then-called "senility floor" smile. Josephine said many times that her "career was chosen for her" as it brought her so much joy to breathe life into ots.To say that she touched the lives of many and that she was a beacon of hope and guidance for so many is an understatement.

As her niece Jaclyn said "We are all so grateful to have had this larger-than-life, shining light of a woman, in our lives"

In addition to her Husband Michael, Josephine is survived by her daughters Sara Brown, of Queens NY (Jason Taylor), and Joanna Brown of Brooklyn, NY (Pedro Marzumillaga). She is predeceased by her sister, Valarie Hennessy, her brother John, her parents Mary & Al Massicotte, and her dearest friend, the Godfather of her daughter Joanna, and partner in crime, Brian Menendez.


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Chapel Service

Friday (3/1)
2 PM @ Green Wood Crematory

Crematory

Green Wood Crematory
500 25th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232