BY ALBERT AMATEAU | Joyce DeChristino, born and raised in Greenwich Village where she brought up her family, which now extends to 11 great-grandchildren, died March 21. She was 100 or older.
“She always lied about her age, because she wanted to be younger than my father — I don’t think she was,” explained a daughter, Elaine Naimoli. “We have birthdates 1913 and 1914. At Perazzo [funeral home] they had it as 1915,” Naimoli said.
“My mother never ever went to the doctor,” Naimoli recalled, adding, “I don’t remember her having even a cold. She never took a pill. She didn’t want to go to the hospital. But my niece — one of her granddaughters — who took care of her on W. Fourth St., noticed she had some trouble breathing and took her anyway. They said something about pneumonia.”
Joyce, her two sisters and two brothers, were born to Salvatore and Madaline Bellavere Rotolo.
“I don’t know where my mom went to high school but she always talked about going to P.S. 3,” Naimoli said.
Joyce met Paul DeChristino in Washington Square Park.
“He lived on Elizabeth St. on the East Side. She said she liked his curly hair,” recalled Naimoli. “They worked in a pickle factory when they were first married. The factory didn’t allow husbands and wives on the payroll, so she told them they were brother and sister,” Naimoli said.
Paul DeChristino died in 1976 at the age of 62.
Naimoli and her sister and brother went to Our Lady of Pompeii School.
“My mom was very religious,” Naimoli recalled. “She sent us to Our Lady of Pompeii and belonged to the sodality there. On Good Fridays she carried the cross in the procession.”
In addition to Naimoli, a son, Philip DeChristino, survives. Her other daughter, Martha Humfrey, died some time ago. Ten grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren also survive. Perazzo Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
The funeral was March 27 at Our Lady of Pompeii. Burial was in St. John’s Cemetery in Queens.
